Schoolboy due to face murder trial after frenzied attacks on strangers
A TEENAGER is due to stand trial for the murder of two random people in frenzied attacks.
James Attfield and Nahid Almanea
The schoolboy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has admitted to the manslaughter of James Attfield 33, and Nahid Almanea 31, in Colchester, Essex.
But today the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it would go ahead with murder charges.
A trial is expected to take place in April at Guildford Crown Court.
James Attfield
The boy, now 17, was just 15 years old when he stabbed Mr Attfield more than 100 times in Colchester on March 29 2014.
Mr Attfield, who had a brain injury after being hit by a car four years before, was found fighting for his life in the town's Castle Park in the early hours of the morning. He died later in hospital.
Three months later, the boy knifed Saudi student Ms Almanea 16 times as she walked from her student accommodation along the Salary Brook Trail towards the University of Essex on the morning of June 17 2014.
CCTV from the night James Attfield died
Ms Almanea was captured on CCTV shortly before the attack wearing a Muslim gown called an abaya.
The two deaths sparked fears a killer was randomly attacking after police said there were "striking similarities" in the killings but nothing to link the victims.
The case is expected to be heard at Guildford Crown Court
The teenager, from Colchester, was arrested after allegedly being found with a lock knife on May 26 last year in the same area where Ms Almanea was killed.
He admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at an earlier hearing at the Old Bailey.