Knife attacker locked up indefinitely for stabbing Bilston shopkeeper

David Dean - now diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic after a lifetime of drug abuse – presents a 'serious risk' of causing harm to members of the public..

The 43-year-old pulled out a knife and launched a savage, unprovoked assault on Purshotam Lal, who was working alone in News and Booze in Bilston Road, Bilston.

Dean burst into the store at around 9.30pm on December 21.

The 51-year-old victim was repeatedly stabbed but bravely grabbed a stick while battling to fend off around 40 blows from the blade.

Dean finally fled, leaving Mr Lal suffering from potentially lethal wounds and requiring surgery for injuries to his chest, knee and hand.

The attacker – who had assaulted a neighbour three weeks earlier and received a four-and-a-half-year sentence in June 1992 for slashing the face of a Wolverhampton shop assistant, leaving the victim needing 43 stitches – was deemed unfit to plead to a charge of attempted murder because of the state of his mental health.

A jury took just 47 minutes to unanimously decide he was the attacker and found him guilty of 'doing the act' at an earlier hearing.

Dean from Holloway Street, Monmore Green appeared at Wolverhampton Crown Court, where Judge John Wait ordered him to be detained indefinitely in secure accommodation under a Hospital Order after two psychiatrists reported that the defendant was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia triggered by an abuse of heroin, cocaine and other drugs, from the age of 10.

He is currently under treatment at the Reaside Clinic near Birmingham and can only be freed in future on the orders of doctors and the Home Secretary.

Two key clues quickly pointed to Dean as the prime suspect after Mr Lal was stabbed. The hooded attacker said 'alright gaffer?' - the nickname given to the victim by regular customers - when he burst into the store and was wearing a striped scarf and gloves.

Less than half an hour later, Dean was spotted starting a fire on nearby waste ground. The remains of a scarf and gloves matching those worn by the knifeman were found at the scene.

Forensic analysis revealed blood on the scarf that matched the DNA of the victim and saliva with a billion to one certainty of having come from Dean whose DNA was also found on the gloves.

He denied involvement during a police interview and claimed to have lost the gloves and scarf - given to him by his mother Irene - shortly before the attack on Mr Lal, who declined to comment after the case.