Sheffield killer assaulted prison officer over anger he did not have TV in his cell

Sheffield Crown Court heard how Peshawa Ghaffour carried out the attack while he was an inmate at HMP Doncaster awaiting trial, accused of the murder of 17-year-old Mohammed Iqbal who was fatally stabbed during an altercation in the main road running through the Sheffield suburb of Crookes on May 25, 2023. 

Jurors subsequently found Ghaffour guilty of Mohammed’s manslaughter, but not guilty of his murder, at the conclusion of a trial at the same court.

Describing Ghaffour’s assault on the prison officer on June 7, 2023, the judge, Recorder Felicity Davies, told Ghaffour: “You were, it seems, angered that you hadn’t got a television. You shouted the nearest prison officer.”

“She came to open your cell door because she couldn’t hear what you were saying.

“You lunged at her, grabbed her shoulders and said or shouted: ‘Why don’t you like me’...she got out her radio to try and call for help, and you tried to grab at it.”

A hearing held on August 8, 2024 heard how a second prison officer subsequently came to her assistance, and as the pair attempted to restrain Ghaffour, aged 31, and put him back in his cell, he was heard to shout at them: ‘Watch, you two are next’.

“This was unpleasant, and no doubt worrying for them,” Recorder Davies told Ghaffour. 

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Ghaffour, previously of Birkendale Road, Walkley, Sheffield, was subsequently charged with, and pleaded guilty to, an offence of assaulting an emergency worker in connection with the incident. 

The court was told that Ghaffour’s only conviction arises out of the fatal stabbing of Mohammed.

Ghaffour wept as he was made to listen to the devastating impact the fatal stabbing has had on Mohammed’s family during his sentencing hearing on November 24, 2023.  

At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Peter Kelson KC sentenced him to seven years’ custody for Mohammed’s manslaughter, along with concurrent sentences for offences of possession of a prohibited weapon, a taser, and possession of a bladed article in a private place, namely a flick knife, both of which he pleaded guilty to prior to the trial beginning.

Defending, Alaric Walmsley said Ghaffour does not agree with the part of his pre-sentence report, which suggests that he has ‘issues with female staff’ members. 

Mr Walmsley continued: “He would also want his advocate to say that there are two sides to every story.”

“What the reports do show is that he spent a week in segregation, which did effectively act as a punishment.”

Referring Recorder Davies to a report prepared by HMP Hull, where Ghaffour is currently an inmate, Mr Walmsley said Ghaffour currently enjoys ‘enhanced’ prisoner status; and after completing a mental health course, he hopes to help other inmates, once he has ‘addressed his own issues’.

Recorder Davies sentenced Ghaffour to three more weeks in prison, and told him: “I hope there will be no further incidents like this during your sentence.”