A mental health nurse has told how she almost died when a hospital patient tried to murder her - by strangling her with the drawstring from his HOODIE.
Kieffer Sutton, 25, throttled mum-of-three Kazeema Asfal, 37, until she blacked out at Heath Lane Hospital, in West Bromwich, West Mids.
She described how he told her 'It'll be fun seeing you die you, you b***h. It's time for you to suffer your death" before other members of staff came to her rescue.
Sutton was given a life sentence with a minimum 13 years term on Thursday (23/5) after being found guilty of attempted murder at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
The court heard he had a shocking previous record of violently attacking nurses, hospital patients and members of the public over a 10 year period.
Sutton - who was born a woman but now identifies as a man - had committed 46 counts of actual or threatened violence, almost all of which were carried out on members of healthcare staff.
But Kazeema said she was not made aware of Sutton's background who had been on the unit for a year before he tried to strangle her on July 2 last year.
He had pretended to need the toilet to get her alone before wrapping the cord around her neck and tightening his grip.
Kieffer Sutton, 25, throttled mum-of-three Kazeema Asfal, 37, until she blacked out at Heath Lane Hospital, in West Bromwich, West Mids.
She described how he told her 'It'll be fun seeing you die you, you b***h. It's time for you to suffer your death" before other members of staff came to her rescue.
Sutton was given a life sentence with a minimum 13 years term on Thursday (23/5) after being found guilty of attempted murder at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
The court heard he had a shocking previous record of violently attacking nurses, hospital patients and members of the public over a 10 year period.
Sutton - who was born a woman but now identifies as a man - had committed 46 counts of actual or threatened violence, almost all of which were carried out on members of healthcare staff.
But Kazeema said she was not made aware of Sutton's background who had been on the unit for a year before he tried to strangle her on July 2 last year.
He had pretended to need the toilet to get her alone before wrapping the cord around her neck and tightening his grip.
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FunTranscript
00:00 So we're here, Heath Lane, West Brom NHS facility in Kazimun, this is your place
00:05 of work and most of us are afforded with a luxury of at least safety and
00:10 security at work but in your role it's a bit different just fill us in on on what
00:13 you do here Kazim. So it's a mental health hospital and if you enjoy and love the job
00:20 you don't find it too, you don't class it as like oh we're gonna go out
00:27 we're gonna get hurt that's not that's not what we come out to think but now it's completely changed to me where...
00:33 Well yeah I mean let's just fill us in on there was a chap
00:38 sentenced yesterday just fill us in on what exactly happened to you Kazima
00:43 it's quite full on isn't it really. I got strangled in his bedroom, I was on his observation.
00:47 I got strangled and tried to fight, to breathe a lot and I just felt like my soul was leaving my body
00:56 and I blacked out. You thought this is it like yeah. Yeah and that's it, I blacked out so I don't remember anything after.
01:02 I only heard the witnesses saying what happened afterwards. So this was a patient on the ward wasn't it?
01:06 Yes. And what can we say now he's been sentenced kind of you know he got a
01:12 long record of you know incidents of attacking staff. I heard on the court there was a lot, there was over 46 counts and it shocked me like.
01:21 That's a lot isn't it. That made me quite emotional like so many people out there has been hurt by this person.
01:28 Yeah. But I was trying to save someone's life because all I did was just looked after them.
01:35 So what happened then you were just what in in the room just checking. No no he's on placed on two observations all time.
01:42 Yeah. His arm and also so we me and the male staff were put on his arm so he went to the
01:49 toilet and the male stood outside and the door shut and then obviously he ran
01:54 towards me with a cord and strangled me. And he got the cord out, was it some joggers or something?
01:58 He was already out, yeah his job was over. So he got it kind of planned you know what I mean.
02:04 Yeah. So this I mean you you know the hijab, where, hijab that's the right word isn't it?
02:12 Yeah. You've even had a bit of you know. I've been worried for the first two months I remember knowing this claustrophobic feeling still in my throat.
02:23 Yeah. Where I said okay I can't really go, I can't go to work because if someone sees me without it I'll get judged in the community.
02:30 Everything was going on through my head. Yeah. My mental health went extreme that I was put on medication for sleep.
02:36 Yeah. Still on them to be honest. Well you're back at work aren't you? I did. Which frankly is
02:40 amazing after what you've been through really. I'm more like of a person that fights, faces a fear.
02:45 Yeah. Don't let it beat you sort of thing. He was getting me the worst at home. Yeah. That I said I need to face it.
02:50 I need to know if I'm, this is me or am I done now? Yeah. My service is 18 years of service, has it come to an end?
02:58 And I don't want it to come to an end but I've got to be honest to myself that I think it has come to an end to be honest.
03:03 Yeah you're thinking it's made you just reflect on you know the not only the stress for yourself
03:08 but that you said that your family are worried when you're at work. My husband, he worries so much
03:15 me not replying to messages because I can't use my phone in there. Yeah. Even though they know
03:19 but they're still, it's natural for them. I can't, I can't not say to them that you know you can't feel
03:24 worried but that's normal. Yeah. As a family. So you're looking at potentially a whole new
03:31 life set change now aren't you? Moving abroad and you know. We do want to move abroad now.
03:35 It was, first it was like we were talking about it but I think I've tried everything. I've tried
03:39 doctors, medication, I've tried therapy, I've tried everything in my side. So when when you've got
03:44 patients like this on on the ward, I mean are you, when they've got a lot of history of attacking
03:51 people is that all kind of made clear to you in that or? Yeah it is made clear but I think that's
03:56 when the investigation was done that they want to bring in body cameras there was none. Oh yeah.
04:01 We only had one which it was when I, when we switched the battery, the battery died straight
04:05 away. So you'd welcome that then body cameras being brought in yeah? They want to bring them
04:11 in now. Yeah. Due to the recent investigation. Yeah. Hope so this can keep staff and patients
04:16 safe. Yeah. Mind you I say that, look at the kind of patients that you're dealing with,
04:21 I guess there's some and there's nothing that will deter them. You know body cameras might
04:25 be usable later on for but I guess you know it's still, it still wouldn't be a deterrence to some
04:34 of the patients I should imagine because they're not of sound mind. They might panic to see them
04:38 so like people are irritated because they're not mentally well. Yeah. So how is it, how has it left
04:43 you feeling towards towards him, towards you know just your own safety? Towards him is always a
04:52 question why I've cared for this patient but that why question is in my head. Yeah. So at the moment
04:59 I need to learn what's about me now, is have I got the strength to do stuff, carry on. Yeah. So
05:09 I'm still learning myself now at the moment like I need to look at everything. So you blacked out
05:15 at the time of the incident, they got this cord around your neck, what are your memories before
05:20 you blacked out? Did the person say anything? Yeah he said two conversations he mentioned,
05:27 little ones that I do hear in my head still. It's going to fun seeing you die, it's time for you to
05:33 suffer your death and then he laughed in my face and I hear that laugh and I hear the voice. Yeah.
05:38 I got scared because we know that that's when mental health is not really bad when patients
05:44 feel that. Yeah. And I don't want to admit it that I'm facing this, I had to because it was
05:50 coming in the way of my life. So I told the doctor the truth and he's put me on medication
05:54 to like, you know, I'm just giving the medication time, it's been a year, it's still worked as long
05:59 as I wanted to. Yeah. So that's why you're still thinking maybe it's more than medication,
06:05 maybe it's just a whole life change and a new scenery, you know what I mean, try and move away
06:10 from it and move forward with your life. Absolutely. Very commendable the job you're doing to be back
06:17 in it. Is there anything you'd like to say that you, any changes you'd like to see or, you know,
06:24 other things that could be brought in to make it safer for staff? I think there's a lot of
06:28 lessons to be learned by this. There will be a lot of change, I think staff will have more courage to
06:34 speak up about stuff now. Yeah. And take it further, it's not okay for you to get hurt at work,
06:39 it's not okay to get physically abused, verbally, it's not okay. Yeah. So they will have courage I
06:45 think from this, they will have courage to go further. And do you think that the sentence that
06:51 the person's had, do you feel it was a just sentence, you know, they got what they deserved?
06:57 Now I know the public's safety, the staff are safe, the main issue was hospitals for him
07:05 and the public and they're safe and that's more than enough for me. Yeah. And do you feel that,
07:12 they often say that there's a lot of, with the way the system works these days, there's a lot
07:17 more of these people that are potentially putting others at risk that are just out and about there
07:22 and do you think, do you see the system works from your point of view or is it always, is it never
07:29 going to have enough funding, it's never going to quite? I'm not sure, I can't comment on that
07:33 funding because I don't know, but all I know is that we, we're one of the high security wards and
07:38 we see patients who are very, very unwell. But this questioned me about this particular patient,
07:44 but it's like I said, lessons to be learned. Yeah. Well, we wish you all the best with moving on
07:51 with your life. Thank you.