A man told his best friend the "world was too overpopulated" and "they needed to kill people" before he launched himself across a coffee table and attempted to strangle her.
The woman had invited her best friend of five years, Kamil Wasik, to her house on October 23 last year to "cheer him up" but realised he was acting strangely after he told her it "made sense about Coronavirus" and "they needed to kill people." The pair had smoked cannabis and were playing on an Xbox but after the comments, she asked him what he was talking about and he attacked.
Prosecutor James Gelsthorpe told Leeds Crown Court on Tuesday: "She was concerned given given what he was saying and he was getting ready to leave. She grabbed his arm and asked not to leave and sit down so they could talk about it. He wouldn't stop putting his shoes on and she said if he left she would call the police.
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"He dived across the coffee table towards her and grabbed her throat."
The woman said she thought it was a "strange joke" at first as initially he was not applying that much pressure but he then began to squeeze her throat tighter.
Mr Gelsthorpe told the court: "She tried to fight him off and was unable to breathe. At one stage she was able to pull his hands away in order to scream and he began to repeatedly punch her about the face before saying 'What am I doing?'"
The woman managed to get off the sofa but fell to the floor and Wasik jumped on her and punched her in the face a number of times before kneeling on her chest and doing a "jumping motion" on it. She told him to "think about what he was doing and his family" and asked him to stop.
He told her he was "sorry" but "he had to do this" and said that "nobody was coming for her" when she tried to scream. After she bit his finger, Wasik began to panic and in a desperate attempt to escape, the woman ran towards the door of the flat but was pulled back again and strangled. Mr Gelsthorpe said: "As before he suddenly stopped and she ran towards the other side of the room. She described it as though he was possessed by something and was fighting within himself. She could hear him saying he was sick as she ran from the flat."
CCTV footage captured the moment the woman tried to escape and was pulled back again by Wasik. The incident only ended after she "remembered everything going black" and Wasik "loosened his grip" and she was able to make a run for it.
Members of the public helped the woman and flagged down police officers. CCTV footage showed Wasik "pacing" the communal area of the block of flats before his arrest. He was also seen by a neighbour who, the court heard, had been told by him he was "sorry" and he had "mental health issues."
Wasik was taken to Pinderfields Hospital and on the way there told officers "I think I have had some very interesting thoughts of killing my best friend." When asked at the hospital why he had done it, he said: "I was with my friend, I think I blacked out and was hallucinating and I think she was shouting for help."
The woman suffered injuries including swelling and bruising to her face, extensive bruising to her neck, a cut to her lip and bruising to her arms, legs and chest. She had also sustained what appeared to be a significant haemorrhage to her right eye and was diagnosed with having a minimally displaced eye socket.
In a victim impact statement, she told how she had had to move in with her parents following the attack before returning home, but suffers flashbacks. She underwent EMDR therapy for trauma but due to finances and distance, had to stop that but is still on the list for it after a referral by a psychiatrist.
She said: "I can't sleep without a light on and wake up at times panicking. I have an alarm because I worry someone will come into my house and attack me." She told how she sees everyone as a potential danger and added: "My best friend tried to kill me and I can't look at anyone the same without preparing to escape."
Mitigating Satpal Roth-Sharma told the court expert reports, a pre-sentence report and references had been prepared. She said Wasik did not have any previous convictions and that there was an explanation as to why there was not a guilty plea to the charge of attempted murder until the day of trial. She said: "I attended upon him before every hearing and there was a denial of what had happened, or some may say shock and he wasn't able to absorb that he could try and kill his best friend."
His Honour Judge Jameson KC rejected the submission and said: "I have read the psychiatric reports which indiates he has an ability to understand the nature of his conduct which is not significantly diminished but is his ability to control his actions. As if there had been a murder the psychiatrist would have supported the partial defence of diminished responsibility." The judge said that "although I accept it can't have been easy for him to come to terms with what he had done, he was perfectly capable of doing so and didn't until the first day of trial."
Ms Roth-Sharma said that the victim did not have to go through giving evidence and that the pair had been best friends for five years. She said the victim had "invited him over as she states that he was feeling down or upset or anxious and she invited him to make him feel better."
The court heard that Wasik had turned to drug abuse and was "smoking 10 spliffs per day" as he was living with his "demons" "instead of taking antidepressants he would have been prescribed." Ms Roth-Sharma said: "The expert touches upon some of his condition."
She added: "The medical expert describes him as a bright individual and it is clear on his own admissions that his mental functions were impaired and he couldn't stop himself. It is apparent he was mentally struggling for a very long time. The biggest sentence he will serve is the loss of his best friend and he will have to live with this for the rest of his life."
Wasik was jailed for 17 years. Follow the sentencing, Detective Sergeant Steve Wright, of Wakefield District CID, said: “This was a horrendous attack on a female victim that left her fearing for her life.
“We are committed to protecting women and girls from violence. I hope this significant custodial sentence demonstrates how seriously incidents such as this are treated and provides some closure for the victim in her continued recovery from this ordeal.”
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