DUBAI // A butcher murdered his flatmate by stabbing him 19 times, Dubai Criminal Court heard yesterday.
Prosecutors said that on January 19, the defendant, a 27-year-old Indian, waited until the two were alone before attacking him with a kitchen knife. The stabbing broke the knife in two and fractured the victim’s skull, according to a forensic report.
The defendant grabbed a second knife and stabbed his compatriot in the head, chest, back and stomach before wrapping the body in a blanket, which he placed under a bed before fleeing the scene.
The victim was found when a colleague went to check on him as he was not at work.
“After taking With my boss’s permission, I headed to the man’s room, along with his colleagues, to open the door with the spare key in my possession,” said the camp’s 36-year-old, a Bangladeshi.
“Once I opened the door, we all froze at the sight of the amount of blood covering the room’s floor. Then we spotted his body in a blanket under the bed.”
Police arrested the defendant after his fingerprints were found on a fridge. “The defendant told us the man kept on threatening to kill him if he did not allow him to have sex,” said an Emirati officer.
He said that the defendant admitted the killing during questioning.
A forensic expert said that each of the wounds the victim received would have killed him.
“One stab fractured his skull and cut the brain tissues. In my professional life, this is the first time I have seen such a wound, which means that the killer was determined to end this man’s life,” he said.
The defendant was not in court to answer charges of premeditated murder. The next hearing will be on April 25.
salamir@thenational.ae