Man pleads guilty to West London dog walker manslaughter

A man has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of a dog walker in a random and frenzied attack in west London last year, with prosecutors accepting his plea on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to a psychotic episode. Dawood Safi, 28, also admitted to stabbing his landlord and a teenage boy during the same incident on October 27, 2025, in Midhurst Gardens, Uxbridge.

On Monday, July 13, 2026, at Southwark Crown Court, Safi pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of 49-year-old Wayne Broadhurst. He had previously admitted to grievous bodily harm with intent against his 45-year-old landlord, Shahzad Farrukh, and actual bodily harm against a 14-year-old boy. The prosecution stated it would not pursue a murder charge against Safi after considering reports from four medical experts, who concluded he was experiencing an "abnormality of mental functioning" at the time of the attacks.

Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw KC told the court that Safi was in a psychotic state, having lost contact with reality and being unable to distinguish between what was real and what was not. He said the experts found the "random, nonsensical and frenzied nature" of the killing supported the conclusion that...