Armed attacker who tried to murder teens near Portobello beach jailed

An armed attacker who tried to murder two teenagers in assaults caught on camera has been jailed for five and a half years.

Amar Mudawi wounded his victims in attacks near Portobello beach in Edinburgh after they had met up with friends at the promenade to socialise.

Mudawi appeared at the promenade with four others and walked directly to an 18-year-old to confront him.

The teenager backed away and a 17-year-old friend intervened to protect him and punched Mudawi on the head.

Mudawi, then aged 21, struck the 17-year-old in the neck with a bladed weapon before heading off in pursuit of his original target.

The 18-year-old fled into nearby Mentone Avenue seeking help and was seen on footage running up a garden path to a house.

But Mudawi and an accomplice followed him and, despite the victim pleading with his attacker to calm down, Mudawi repeatedly stabbed him in the head with a pair of scissors.

The victim could be heard screaming in pain as the assault continued with his attackers kicking and stamping on him. Mudawi and the other attacker ran off to a waiting car, which drove off at speed.

Residents came to the assistance of the injured victim and police were called, the High Court in Edinburgh heard.

The 17-year-old was found to have sustained a superficial stab wound to the left side of his neck, which was only millimetres from the jugular vein.

The other victim had two wounds to his head and one at the base of his neck along with a fractured wrist.

Mudawi, of Portobello, admitted assaulting and attempting to murder the teenagers while acting with others on April 12 last year at Portobello Promenade and at Mentone Avenue.

A judge, who watched footage of the attacks, told him that he had pled guilty to two “very serious offences” and only a substantial sentence was appropriate in the circumstances.

Judge John Morris KC said that he took into account his age at the time of the offending and now, and his guilty pleas.

He said that if he was dealing with an older adult offender he would have faced a 12-year sentence, with nine years’ imprisonment and a further three years under supervision in the community.

He told Mudawi, now 22, that, following a five-and-a-half-year prison term imposed on him, he would be on licence for an additional 18 months. During that time he can be returned to jail if he breaches the licence.

Defence counsel David Taylor said Mudawi was involved in an earlier confrontation with a group, which included the older teenager, before he received information that they were in the vicinity of his mother’s address.

He said Mudawi had found the scissors in the glove box of a car he was being transported in.

The defence counsel said: “It was never his intention to commit murder at any point.”

He said that when Mudawi was shown some of the footage he found it “really shocking”. Mr Taylor said: “He was horrified by his own actions.”