A man who stabbed his neighbour to death after subjecting him to years of antisocial behaviour has been found guilty of murder. Can Arslan, 52, killed father of three Matthew Boorman outside his home in Walton Cardiff, Gloucestershire, on 5 October last year.
Arslan had been in a “long-running dispute” with his neighbours, lawyers told the trial, and small rows over parking and a scratch on a car had escalated to the point where Arslan threatened to kill his victim.
The day before he stabbed Matthew Boorman 27 times on Boorman’s front lawn, Arslan had told the police: “I will murder him.”
Gloucestershire police have now referred themselves to the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), and are under investigation. The IOPC said it was “examining what actions police took in response to a number of reports made by neighbours since January last year”.
Matthew Boorman’s wife, Sarah, said the police response to prior warnings about Arslan had been “toothless and ineffective”.
Arslan launched the attack on Mr Boorman, 43, when Mr Boorman came to Arslan’s front door on the afternoon of 5 October.
Throughout his trial, Arslan claimed that he should be convicted on a lesser charge of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Two forensic psychiatrists told jurors that he was not psychotic or mentally ill. However, he had been diagnosed with a paranoid, unstable and antisocial pesonality disorder.
Arslan said that the voice of his childhood teddy bear had told him to kill, but an expert witness told the trial he was “sceptical” of the claim.
The first mention in Arslan’s medical records of hearing “voices” came at 7:33pm on the night of the killing. Forensic psychologist Dr John Sandford said: “When you get a voice on its own you are always very sceptical, but when you get a voice on its own after a serious offence you are even more sceptical.”
Arslan also claimed after his arrest that he had taken an overdose, but doctors found that he didn’t seem to be on any drugs at the time.
During the trial, lawyers described the scene as like a “horror movie”. Kate Brunner QC cited the words of one of the victim’s colleagues, who was on the phone to him when he was attacked by Arslan.
“She said it was like listening to a ‘totally horrendous horror movie’, and it was a horror movie that was just beginning and this defendant had written the script,” Ms Brunner said.
After killing Mr Boorman, Arslan made a series of threats against other people in the area and attacked another neighbour, Peter Marsden.
Arslan had subjected his neighbour Mr Boorman to years of threats, the court heard. Mr Boorman’s wife had made a statement to the police last May, setting out a series of threats that Arslan had made to the couple.
She confided to officers that they were both worried about being murdered. Arslan made counter-allegations, and the day before the attack a police officer telephoned him to talk about the complaint he had made.
Arslan told the officer that “he would sort his neighbour out himself”, prosecuting lawyers told the court. “Mr Arslan said he would murder him,” the jury was told.
Mr Boorman’s wife tried to pull Arslan off her husband during the attack, and sustained a deep wound to the leg.
In a statement, Sarah Boorman described Matthew as a “kid at heart”, who “infused fun into the most mundane tasks”.
“He loved to celebrate life,” she said, “and fill the house with both music and laughter. Perhaps what people will remember most of all about Matt is his smile. His energy, his love, his laughter – a very proud father of his children.”
Ms Boorman added: “On 5 October 2021, Matthew’s life was stolen from him by the defendant, and he was cruelly taken from us. We will never be the same without him, but as we move forward and learn how to cope without him, we fight in his name to expose not only the malice and cruelty of the man that did this, but also the failings in the system that let this happen.”
She said that “police and other authorities had been told about how dangerous [Arslan] was”, and blasted their response as “toothless and ineffective, even when the defendant himself told the police he was going to murder Matthew”.
Arslan will be sentenced on 9 June, after further information about his mental health condition has been supplied to the judge.
An IOPC spokesperson said: “We are investigating Gloucestershire Constabulary’s actions following a series of reported neighbourhood incidents prior to the death of Matthew Boorman in Walton Cardiff, near Tewkesbury, in October.
“We are examining what actions police took in response to a number of reports made by neighbours since January last year.
“Our independent investigation began following a mandatory referral from Gloucestershire Constabulary about prior police contact, and force referrals of neighbour complaints. Our investigation is continuing.”
