LONDON: A British Nazi sympathiser who targeted a prominent immigration lawyer in a knife attack was on Thursday sentenced to indefinite detention in hospital.

Cavan Medlock, 32, took a knife, handcuffs, a Nazi flag and a Confederate flag to the London office of law firm Duncan Lewis in Sept 2020 and demanded to see Toufique Hossain, the firm’s head of public law.

Hossain has represented claimants in a number of high-profile court cases, including legal challenges to Britain’s controversial plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Prosecutors said Medlock intended to restrain Hossain and display the two flags in the office’s windows as a “rallying cry” for others with extreme right-wing views.

Medlock was disarmed by a receptionist and held by staff until police arrived. He later told police that he had targeted Hossain after reading an online Daily Mail article. A spokesperson for DMG Media, which publishes the Daily Mail and MailOnline, said in a statement: “The Mail gives no support to terrorists, whatever their politics.

“The article referenced in this case was a legitimate piece of investigative journalism in the public interest and the law firm involved was quoted so their view would be represented.”

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2024