CCTV assists detectives in securing assault conviction

CCTV crucially helped detectives secure a conviction for assault after footage captured the incident unfold.

Sahad Falih pleaded guilty to section 20 wounding and two counts of possession of an offensive weapon at Leicester Crown Court last month.

The 35-year-old from Evington Road, Leicester was sentenced to 14 months in prison at the same court today (Monday 20 March) for the section 20 wounding. 

He was sentenced to 10 months in prison for the two counts of possession of an offensive weapon, this sentence is to run concurrently with the wounding sentence.

On the afternoon on Monday 24 October last year police received a call reporting a fight in the street in Evington Road involving a group of men.

The caller mentioned a knife was seen and a further call was made shortly after to report someone had been stabbed.

Once officers arrived at the scene, the fight had finished but a number of people were still in the street with no-one providing police with information about what had just happened.  

An investigation commenced and quickly seized CCTV presented the events of what took place.

It showed three men exit a car which had pulled up outside a store and the three men stand outside the entrance to the store.

Shortly after a man came rushing out armed with a knife and proceeded to lunge at one the men.    In the process of defending himself by putting his arms up, the victim was stabbed in the hand.

Further CCTV showed the attacking man entered a different store opposite and he was captured hiding the knife before leaving the store armed this time with a screwdriver.

CCTV outside again captured him try to attack the victim once again as well as attempting to attack one of other men with him.

The suspect returned to the first store as police were being called to attend.

As part of our investigation and through intelligence work and further enquires Falih was identified as a man responsible for the incident and wanted by police.

Numerous attempts were made to arrest Falih as the investigation progressed before he handed himself in a police station almost two months after the incident.

After his arrest, despite the already gained evidence against him, he provided no comment in interview and he was later charged and remanded.

Detective Constable Jamie Anderson, who was the investigating officer, speaks about the importance of CCTV in cases such as this.

He said: “In circumstances such as this when officers arrived at the scene, one of a number of important initial enquiries they would carry out is to speak to bystanders to see if anyone saw what happened or has any information. It become very obvious that if anyone at the scene had any information they were not willing to share it with police.

“Without any witnesses, reluctant victims and no forensics, all factors which therefore could have hindered our investigation, CCTV becomes our ultimate focus to gather evidence and, in this case, it proved vital.

“The footage evidently showed Falih as the aggressor and given its clear quality we were able to identify him.

“Our enquiries uncovered that the background to the incident related to an ongoing dispute between the assaulted victim and the two businesses where the defendant worked. The victim owned a similar type of store and had gone to the stores to resolve the dispute but before he could talk to the owners, he was attacked by Falih.”

DC Anderson added: “This case clearly demonstrates how crucial CCTV can be to piece together what happened, identify a suspect and strengthen evidence.

“Without it, we may not have been as successful in securing this conviction. I would like to publicly thank those businesses who supplied us with this footage and supported it’s use in the police investigation.”