Gafoor: Shame and panic before 'frenzied' knife attack

The 38-year-old security guard stabbed his victim 50 times, horrifically mutilating her body.

Following his arrest in February this year, Gafoor refused to tell police why he had carried out the killing in Cardiff's docklands 15 years previously.

But defending Gafoor at Cardiff Crown Court, his defence lawyer, John Charles Rees, tried to explain how the 22-year-old Gafoor could have carried out the brutal murder.

There was shame, panic and there was a frenzied attack with a knife Patrick Harrington QC

He said: "This was not a premeditated or sexual killing.

"He went to the docks to seek the services of a prostitute.

"He met Lynette White and went back to her flat where he paid her �30.

"But he changed his mind and asked for his money back.

"He was carrying a knife because he had been robbed three months before in Butetown.

"In the course of the argument, he took out the knife and threatened her with it.

"She grabbed the knife, and there was a struggle, during which she was stabbed.

'Shame'

"He doesn't know why what followed, followed.

"There was shame, panic and there was a frenzied attack with a knife."

The court was told that Gafoor inflicted horrific injuries on Lynette White, which included seven stab wounds to her heart.

But Mr Rees said that in the context of Gafoor's life, the murder was "an extraordinary and terrible event".

He added that Gafoor had otherwise led a normal life.

But Patrick Harrington, prosecuting, told the packed court: "After the killing, his life appears to have continued on an even keel.

"Only he knew the secret of what he had done and that secret he still keeps.

"Police interviewed him extensively, but he told them that he had nothing to say - he has answered no questions about the murder."

Through his barrister, Gafoor apologised to the family of Lynette White and to the three men jailed for a crime they had not committed.

But as Gafoor begins his life sentence, it remains a mystery why he carried out a murder of such savagery.