Toufique Hossain, a Director at Duncan Lewis, was giving evidence at Kingston-upon Thames Crown Court in the trial of Cavan Medlock, 31, who is charged with preparation of terrorist acts and making a threat to kill. He denies both charges.
Medlock allegedly visited the firm's office in early September 2020, armed with a knife and handcuffs. Medlock said that he was there to kill Hossain after seeing his name in a Daily Mail article.
Hossain said as he approached Medlock, who was restrained by another solicitor, he heard him saying a number of different things including racist terms and phrases like 'Hitler was right'.
He added: ‘[Medlock] was saying "you are all helping these rats come to this country". He was then saying, he kept saying, "he is helping". I think at that stage I said "who do you mean?".
‘At that stage he was looking at me. I cannot recall exactly what I said but it was along the lines of "who are you talking about or what do you want to know?". He said "Toufique Hossain, I have come to kill Toufique Hossain".’
Speaking on the matter Hossain said: ‘For me, what was completely horrifying about it was, he was stone cold, unemotional, looking at me with a real deep hatred, I would call it. The manner in which he spoke and the way he looked at me was pretty horrifying.
‘One clear thing I remember, once he had been sat down, while we waited for the police he said "clearly I should have finished the job". I think I said or someone said "what do you mean, what job?" He said, looking directly at me, "to kill this fucker".’
When Medlock entered the Duncan Lewis offices, seeking Hossain, he was told it was not possible without an appointment before he took a combat knife from his rucksack and went toward the receptionist. There was a ‘scuffle’ and the receptionist was able to kick the knife away.
Sheroy Zaq, a supervising solicitor, restrained Mr Medlock in a corner of the room. He said: I ran over and grabbed Mr Medlock by the shoulders and forced him into the corner and did my best to keep him there. He was just trying to use his body weight to force his way out of the corner. That did not happen for very long and it was at that point that the verbal abuse began.
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