Sheffield cinema killer was on 'first proper date' when he bumped into 'enemy from school', court hears

Sheffield Crown Court heard during a trial how Fahim Hersi, aged 22, of Broomhall, was stabbed to death in the car park at Cineworld, at Centertainment, Meadowhall, in September, 2018.

Noel Ramsey, 22, of Nottingham Street, Burngreave, had denied murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Tuesday, after admiting throughout to stabbing Fahim in self-defence.

Ramsey’s friend Layton Morris, 22, of Ferrars Road, Tinsley, had denied assisting Ramsey by disposing of the knife near a bin but he also pleaded guilty on Tuesday.

David Brooke, prosecuting, said there had been bad blood between Fahim’s friend Osman Jama and Ramsey and after a confrontation between the three, Ramsey was stabbed in the leg and Fahim was fatally stabbed in the chest by Ramsey.

Judge Jeremy Richardson QC said Jama, was "the one who brought the knife and started the violence."

"Coming in second was Hersi," he added. "He wasn't going there as a first aider. He was probably going to inflict some level of trouble on Mr Ramsey."

The court heard Ramsey was on licence at the time. He had previous convictions for wounding, when he slashed a man's face with a machete, in May 2015, aged 17, and in September 2014, when he stabbed a man. While he was in prison he broke another inmate's jaw.

Dean George QC, for Ramsey, said: "This was his first proper date with a girl and they were going to the cinema. That chance meeting appears to have altered the good progress he had been making. He was initially trying to walk away."

The judge said: “This case is yet another example of the pernicious effect of young men - and they are nearly always young men – carrying knives in public places. It’s a cause of great harm to our society.”

“It is a devastating feature of life in this present time that there are so many young men who carry knives. When an argument erupts the first resort is to a knife, and there are frequently devastating consequences.”

Ramsey received five years and Morris was handed six months in prison.