Man who tried to kill lorry driver on Carlisle's Pirelli site receives hospital order

An agency worker who tried to kill a wagon driver by repeatedly stabbing him on Carlisle’s Pirelli tyre compound has been made the subject of a hospital order.

The violent attack happened as victim Michael Kadlcik waited for his trailer to be loaded in a DHL depot at around 3am on April 19, 2019.

Armed with a serrated edged blade, Martin Bozhkov, who was 20-years-old at the time and suffering from mental illness, knocked on the door to Mr Kadlcik’s cab at the Dalston Road site having been loading tyres into his trailer.

“When he got down from the cab, the defendant immediately attacked him,” prosecutor Jacob Dyer told Carlisle Crown Court today.

Bozhkov repeatedly stabbed his victim while chasing him through a depot, leaving a trail of blood.

The 43-year-old Czech resident suffered multiple deep stab wounds to his scalp, face, chest wall and thigh, and a punctured lung. He was treated in the trauma unit of a Newcastle hospital.

In the aftermath, Mr Kadlcik told police through an interpreter he “literally thought he was going to die”. He had since made a good recovery, was “stoical” about the incident, and made an impact statement.

Having initially been deemed by doctors unfit to stand trial and enter a plea, Bulgarian national Bozhkov admitted attempted murder during a court hearing last month, telling a judge: “I’m really sorry.”

He had since been detained in a secure psychiatric facility and was said to have been engaging very well with treatment.

After hearing a doctor conclude that this detention should continue, Judge Simon Medland QC directed that Bozhkov should be made the subject of a hospital order.

“You were floridly psychotic in April, 2019, simply because, sadly, you suffered from entirely involuntary mental illness,” said Judge Medland.