Saudi student murdered by stranger, trial told

A Saudi Arabian student died after being stabbed by a stranger who had been drinking and using drugs on a summer night in Cambridge, a jury has heard.

Mohammed Algasim, 20, was sitting outside student accommodation with friends on 1 August 2025 when Chas Corrigan stabbed him in the neck with a kitchen knife, a prosecution lawyer told a trial at Cambridge Crown Court.

Barrister Nicholas Hearn told jurors on Tuesday that CCTV had captured Corrigan's "actions" before, during and after the incident.

Corrigan, 22, of Holbrook Road, Cambridge, denies murder.

Police said Algasim died in the early hours of 2 August.

Jurors watched CCTV footage of the incident at the start of the trial.

Footage showed Algasim running away after a confrontation with a man in a yellow high-vis jacket.

Hearn said footage showed Corrigan, who was wearing the yellow jacket, stabbing Algasim.

"You will, I am afraid, have to watch that footage many, many times during the course of this trial," Mr Hearn told jurors.

"The reality is that, in this case, the footage speaks for itself."

He said Corrigan had admitted being in possession of a knife at the time but denied murdering Algasim.

Hearn said evidence showed Corrigan had been drinking and using drugs prior to the incident.

He said an acquaintance had told police that Corrigan, who had been in the Earl of Derby pub in Cambridge, was "behaving crazily" earlier in the evening.

"Mr Algasim posed no threat to anybody," said Mr Hearn.

"He was a student who had come to Cambridge to study from Saudi Arabia."

Hearn added, "the defendant was the aggressor here" and said Algasim had never met Corrigan.

Barrister Jane Osborne KC, for Corrigan, said her client accepted he was the man in the CCTV footage and had been carrying a knife.

"He will tell you that he had no intention of using that knife," Osborne told jurors.

"Rather he had it with him, so, in the event he was attacked, as he has been in the past, he could use it to scare off any attackers."

She said Corrigan had not intended to cause harm but aimed to wave the knife between himself and Algasim.

Osborne added: "He will tell you that he had no idea that he had even made contact with Mr Algasim."

She said Corrigan would put the CCTV footage in "context".

Police said the incident happened shortly before midnight.

They said off-duty doctors and paramedics had attended the scene and tried to help.

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