Hassan Abdi Mohamed

Hassan Abdi Mohamed was found stabbed on a footpath near Holly Field on Saturday 5 March 2016.

He was found on a footpath between Southern Way and Pyenest Road at about 10.45am after going there to buy some class A drugs. It was thought that he might have been stabbed with his own knife and that whoever had stabbed him had taken the knife away with them, as it was never found.

Paramedics carried out emergency surgery at the scene and he was then taken to Princess Alexandra Hospital where he died at 12.07pm. The police later said, 'Paramedics performed an emergency operation at the time, they actually opened his chest, identified a cut to his heart and stitched the heart. They were trying to do everything they could to save his life, they couldn't do any more, considering the circumstances'.

Hassan Mohamed had lived in Abbotsweald, Harlow and had just come home from a night shift, getting home at about 8.30am. It was heard that after getting home he had slept on the sofa in the downstairs living room and had then gone out to buy some drugs in the alleyway where he was found. He was a class A drugs user and had been taking drugs for several years and had told his partner that he was going out 'to buy some drugs at a usual location', which was the cycle path on Pyenest Road, close to Holly Field.

His partner had arranged to meet him after he bought the drugs and went out with the children to the local shops. After his son was unable to get through to him on the phone he went to see if he could find him and found him on the ground in the alleyway. At his inquest it was heard that his children were unaware that he used drugs, but knew that he would sometimes be in the area that he was found.

There was no CCTV covering the place where he was stabbed, however, the police said that they found CCTV footage of a man that they thought was Hassan Mohamed on what would have been his way to the alleyway at 10.17am which would have correlated with him having left his house at about 10am.

It was noted that a witness said that they had seen Hassan Mohamed with a knife tucked inside his coat jacket sleeve. However, that knife was never found. The police said that they thought that it was a type of carving knife and that he had taken it from his home address.

At the inquest the coroner asked, 'Why did he take a knife with him to purchase drugs, and what was the catalyst at the scene for violence to be used?'.

The police said that they had considered that Hassan Mohamed might have had a high drugs debt and that he might have taken the knife along to rob the drug dealers, however, they said that there was no evidence to support that.

Two youths, an 18-year-old and a 15-year-old were arrested on suspicion of his murder, but later released due to insufficient evidence.

He died from a single stab wound to the chest. His cause of death was given as hypovolemic shock and cardiac tamponade, due to a stab wound to the right ventricle in the heart. It was thought that he had been stabbed with a large knife, but the weapon was never found. Hypovolemic shock was noted as being when the body loses 20% of its blood or body fluid whilst cardiac tamponade was a condition in which blood or fluids filled the space between the sac that encases the heart and the heart muscle itself, resulting in a high pressure differential around the heart that restricted the heart's ventricles from expanding fully.

It was noted that he had scratches on his face and head and it was thought that he had fallen into bushes or hedgerow near the scene.

It was noted that it was possible that Hassan Mohamed might have been able to have walked some way after he was stabbed, before collapsing.

A toxicology report showed that he had traces of cocaine, heroin, methadone, tramadol and citalopram in his system, but it was noted that none of the drugs were enough to have caused an overdose.

An open verdict on his death was recorded.

Hassan Mohamed was born in Somalia and had two children and at the time his family had been living with his partner's father's family.