Patient who tried to kill nurse jailed for life

Kazeema Afzal said Kieffer Sutton told her it would be "fun seeing you die" as he strangled her

A patient who strangled a mental health nurse until she blacked out has been jailed for at least 13 years.

In sentencing Kieffer Sutton, 25, the judge said he posed a "persistent danger" to the public.

Sutton was a patient at Heath Lane Hospital in West Bromwich when he attacked Kazeema Afzal with the drawstring of his hoodie on 2 July 2023.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard he had previously committed 46 counts of actual or threatened violence, almost all of which were carried out on members of healthcare staff.

These incidents included him strangling a female nurse, headbutting a member of hospital staff which resulted in a concussion, and stamping on the stomach of someone who had previously had surgery.

He had also threatened to set a nurse on fire and told another he would stab them.

'Devious manipulative person'

Judge Simon Ward said he believed Sutton had engineered the situation on 2 July so Ms Afzal would be vulnerable to attack by him.

He told the defendant: "I am convinced you are a devious, manipulative person. I have seen you behave in that way."

The judge said it was his duty to protect the public and that the persistent danger that Sutton posed was unlikely to change significantly.

Judge Ward acknowledged that Sutton's personality disorder reduced his culpability in the attack of Ms Afzal, but that the threat he posed to members of the public meant he had to impose a life sentence.

"When you are released, you will be subject to a life licence, that's why I'm passing a sentence of this nature," he told the defendant.

The court heard that Sutton, of Wood End Road in Erdington, had been physically abused as a child and experienced periods of homelessness while growing up, as well as imprisonment.

Prosecutor Mr Cullen said: "He's had an awful life, an awful upbringing. He's had no life at all."

He added that after the incident, Sutton had written a remorseful letter apologising to Ms Afzal, but Judge Ward said he believed this letter was not genuine.

'Ruined my life'

The court heard that Ms Afzal still struggled to sleep, is taking five types of anxiety medication, and that a GP told her he believed she had PTSD.

She also struggled to wear her hijab for a long time due to the feeling of constriction around her neck and as a consequence was scared of going out into the community without it.

The judge added that Ms Afzal had already been vulnerable due to the death of her sister - another NHS worker - in the pandemic.

"This has ruined my life," she said in her victim impact statement.

Speaking ahead of sentencing, she said she wished she could ask Sutton why he did it.

"I went numb and floppy. I thought, I'm going to die now," she said.

Ms Afzal told the BBC she was now considering giving up her career completely and moving abroad with her family, because of the impact the attack has had on her mental health.

"I'm scared for my kids to go to school, I'm scared something sinister will happen to them," the mother-of-two said.

"He stopped my whole life."