A 23-year-old man has entered a guilty plea for the manslaughter of a dog walker in west London, an event prosecutors characterized as an act of extreme violence. Dawood Safi was responsible for the death of 49-year-old Wayne Broadhurst on 27 October 2025.
Before the fatal attack, Safi had also assaulted his 45-year-old landlord, Shahzad Farrukh, and a teenager in Midhurst Gardens, Uxbridge. Prosecutors accepted the plea for manslaughter after experts concluded that Safi was experiencing a state of diminished responsibility due to a psychotic breakdown.
Jonathan Laidlaw KC explained to the court that four mental health specialists determined Safi had suffered a total mental collapse during the assault. Reports indicated the defendant was struggling with delusional thoughts, hearing voices, and had lost touch with reality. Safi is scheduled to face a jury at Southwark Crown Court regarding the attempted murder charges related to the attacks on his landlord and the 14-year-old boy. Additionally, he has admitted to possessing an offensive weapon and committing grievous bodily harm against those two individuals.
Safi, who arrived in the UK in 2020 and received asylum in 2022, had previously experienced significant trauma, including witnessing his father’s death. While the family of Wayne Broadhurst had sought a murder conviction, the prosecution acknowledged the medical findings regarding Safi’s mental state.
