A chilling assault that took place in Harlesden, North-West London, has concluded with the perpetrator, Gulwali Stanezay, a 22-year-old homeless man, facing justice. The brutal attack, which occurred on February 26 near Minet Avenue, began when Stanezay pursued Aisha Waris, aged 23, who was walking alone at the time.
Stanezay, an immigrant from Afghanistan, chased Waris on his bicycle and, in a disturbing sequence of events, used the bike to knock her to the ground. Despite Waris’s attempts to flee, Stanezay inflicted a brutal beating, with doorbell camera footage capturing him repeatedly punching her, underscoring the viciousness of the assault.
In a desperate attempt to escape the violence, Waris sought shelter in a nearby house, but Stanezay’s rampage continued as he tried to kick down the door. The violence escalated further when he caused significant damage to a parked car and assaulted Waris’s father, who had rushed to the scene. Both victims were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, but the attack left both with physical wounds and Waris with lasting psychological trauma.
Stanezay was arrested on March 1, shortly after the attack. Authorities utilized doorbell and CCTV footage to locate and apprehend him. Without offering any reason for his actions, he entered a guilty plea to two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of criminal damage.
The court sentenced Stanezay to three years and one month in prison. This sentence incorporates additional time due to a breach of a suspended sentence order from a prior assault in December of the previous year. Having arrived in the UK in 2016 as an unaccompanied minor, Stanezay has conveyed his remorse to the victims through his defense attorney. The community remains shaken by the severity of the incident, with calls for increased measures to ensure public safety and prevent such violent crimes in the future.
