A JURY has concluded that an agency worker did repeatedly stab a wagon driver during a dramatic night shift attack at Carlisle’s Pirelli tyre compound.
Michael Kadlcik, a Czech national, was waiting for his trailer to be loaded when 20-year-old stranger Martin Bozhkov knocked on the door of his cab at around 3am on April 19.
As Mr Kadlcik left his vehicle, knife-wielding Bozhkov began attacking him without warning. Shocked warehouse workers watched as Bozhkov made repetitive stabbing motions towards Mr Kadlcik during a chase through the DHL depot on the Dalston Road site as the victim desperately tried to flee, one employee seeing “blood gushing from his head”. Mr Kadlcik managed to barricade himself into an office. He suffered stab wounds to his head, upper body and leg, and was transported to a Newcastle hospital major trauma unit.
Mr Kadlcik was interviewed by police three days later. An interpreter assisting him told an officer: “He literally thought he was going to die.”
Bozhkov was restrained and arrested at the scene – from which police recovered heavily blood-stained clothing worn by both men – and was charged with attempted murder.
A Carlisle Crown Court jury heard earlier this week that Bulgarian national Bozhkov was “mentally unwell” at the time of the incident, which remained the case and meant he was unfit to enter a plea and stand trial.
Jurors were asked simply to decide, after hearing evidence, whether they were satisfied Bozhkov had done the act charged against him. And this morning (WED), the jury took less than 15 minutes to conclude that he had.
Bozhkov, latterly of Warwick Road, Carlisle, was remanded in custody and will be made subject to a hospital order on a future date. Judge James Adkin told jurors more information was needed from NHS managers before that order could be passed.