Nadine Osman
A 22-year-old construction worker has been found guilty of murdering a Saudi student attending a language summer school in Cambridge.
Mohammed Algasim, 20, was fatally stabbed in the neck while sitting with friends outside student accommodation near the city’s main railway station shortly before 11:30 pm on August 1, 2025. The attack, captured on CCTV, showed the student sitting on a low wall before a confrontation with the attacker, who later returned wielding a knife.
Prosecutors said Chas Corrigan attacked Algasim with a kitchen knife following “an evening of drinking and using drugs.” Corrigan denied murder but told Cambridge Crown Court that he had waved the knife to intimidate, not to injure. Jurors returned a guilty verdict after just two hours of deliberation.
Algasim’s family described him as “a dutiful son, a loving brother, and the leader of the family in spirit.”
During the trial, CCTV footage was shown of Corrigan, wearing a high-visibility top, approaching Algasim and his friends. Corrigan said he had initially approached the group to ask for a lighter, insisting he did not know anyone in the group. He claimed he turned back after hearing shouting and thought he was being challenged. “He just startled me,” Corrigan told jurors. “I thought he was going to hurt me. I stepped back. I pulled out the knife to intimidate him and scare him away from me.” CCTV then showed Algasim running before collapsing. Corrigan said, “I thought I had just scared him off. I ran in the other direction.”
Corrigan told the court that he had been drinking at a pub earlier in the evening, consuming about six pints of Guinness, one or two gin and tonics, and several drinks containing vodka. He admitted to taking cocaine twice, saying he was “merry” but “not drunk.” He also said he had been carrying the kitchen knife for protection after a previous attack.
Pathologist Virginia Fitzpatrick-Swallow told the court that Algasim suffered an 11.5cm-deep wound to his neck, severing a vital artery, and died within an hour of being stabbed.
Police recovered a high-visibility hooded sweatshirt in a nearby bin on Vinter Terrace, and the weapon, a silver kitchen knife with a 5-inch blade, was found in a brambled area close by. Corrigan’s father, Peter admitted assisting an offender and is awaiting sentencing.
Corrigan will be sentenced at a later date.
Feature photo: CCTV image issued by Cambridgeshire Police showing Chas Corrigan (top right) approaching Mohammed Algasim (bottom right) shortly before the 20-year-old Saudi student was fatally stabbed near student accommodation in Cambridge on August 1, 2025. Corrigan has since been convicted of Algasim’s murder. (Credit: Cambridgeshire Police)
