The killer ‘played his own horror movie’ when he ‘stabbed his neighbor to death’

Can Arslan, 52, is charged with the murder of Matthew Boorman, 43, a father of three, by stabbing him 27 times in his garden in Walton Cardiff, Gloucestershire on October 5 last year.

An ’emotionless’ killer starred in his own horror movie with himself in the ‘lead role’ when he stabbed his neighbor to death, a court has heard.

Can Arslan, 52, is accused of murdering father-of-three Matthew Boorman, 43, by stabbing him 27 times in his garden in Walton Cardiff, Gloucestershire on October 5 last year.

He also stabbed Mr Boorman’s wife, Sarah, in the leg as she tried to intervene, before breaking into the house of another neighbour, Peter Marsden, and stabbing him eight times , the court said.

Arslan denies the murder, instead saying he should be convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

But prosecutor Kate Brunner QC argued Bristol Crown Court Arslan had ‘planned and controlled’ the stabbings and had hoped ‘to end up on TV’.

She quoted the words of one of Mr Boorman’s colleagues, who was on the phone with him when Arslan attacked.

She told the court: “She said it was like watching a ‘totally horrible horror movie’, and it was a horror movie that was just getting started and this defendant had written the script.

“It wasn’t something that happened to him – it was something he planned and controlled. It was a planned horror movie, where he was going to stab his victims to death one by one.

“A horror film where he was going to play a leading role and end up on television.”

After his arrest, Arslan asked officers if he was on Sky News or the BBC.

Ms Brunner said the defendant also faked a number of different potential psychiatric defences, such as being suicidal, hearing voices telling him to kill and amnesia – and even asked a psychiatrist if her report on him could earn her a lesser sentence.

Ms Brunner said that by faking mental illness, Arslan had demonstrated how rational he was, adding: ‘He’s a cunning, clever man who tries to make fun of the eyes.

Two forensic psychiatrists agreed that Arslan was neither psychotic nor mentally ill, but said he had been diagnosed with a paranoid, unstable and antisocial personality disorder.

Defending, Howard Godfrey QC, argued that Arslan’s actions were clearly “not normal behaviour”, noting that he attacked “in broad daylight, when everyone is there and there is CCTV everywhere.

He continued: “He doesn’t do it at night when someone walks their dog and then runs away, he doesn’t wear a mask to try to hide who he is; it’s in broad daylight, in front of everyone who is around .”

Mr Godfrey continued: “After Mr Boorman died, he continued to stab him 27 times, then lit a cigarette and sat on Mr Boorman. Does this seem like normal behaviour?

“He’s calm, he’s robotic, he’s emotionless for a lot of it.”

Mr Godfrey also referred to witnesses who had described Arslan as a ‘sharp-eyed’ ‘psycho’.

He also noted that a forensic psychiatrist found that his personality disorder “impacted his ability to form rational judgment”, adding that “it was serious enough to amount to an abnormality in function. mental”.

Arslan admitted the attempted murder of Mr Marsden, causing grievous bodily harm to Ms Boorman, and a charge of brawling.

Jurors are expected to retire to consider their verdicts on Monday afternoon.

The trial continues.