Man who tried to kill Army officer to be detained in hospital after being given life sentence
A 25-year-old man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for attempting to murder a uniformed officer in a “wicked and deliberate” attack near a barracks in Kent.
Anthony Esan will remain in hospital custody indefinitely after stabbing Lieutenant Colonel Mark Teeton multiple times with two knives at Sally Port Gardens near Brompton Barracks in Chatham on July 23, 2024.
Maidstone Crown Court heard Esan, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, was sentenced to a minimum of seven years and 162 days in prison.
However, he will stay in the hospital for as long as doctors deem necessary. The prosecution highlighted that Esan had purchased a set of knives days before the attack and had searched online for details of previous attacks, including the murder of soldier Lee Rigby.
Forensic psychiatrists told the court that Esan probably intended to target a soldier, but that his actions were primarily driven by psychosis.
Sentencing him on Friday, Mr Justice Picken said: “The attack on Mr Teeton was targeted and deliberate. As the fact that you researched the murder of Lee Rigby on the internet indicates, you were looking for a soldier with the intention that that soldier would die.”
During the four-day sentencing, harrowing details about the attack emerged. Lieutenant Colonel Teeton’s wife, Eileen Teeton, ran to a soldier lying on the ground outside their family home but realized it was her husband.
He bravely pushed Esan away, but when he saw that he had a knife in his hand, he “felt a wave of fear” and considered running for his life.
In her victim impact statement, Ms Teeton said: “I watched in horror as his brutal attack continued and I realized it was my husband lying on the ground and he had cut his face and neck.”
The prosecution praised his actions as “extraordinary”. Ms. Teeton also shared her husband’s words from his hospital bed: “Do people at work know what he’s trying to do to me?” When asked what he meant, he replied: “Cut off my head! Like Lee Rigby.”
Footage shown in court showed Esan parking his moped and stopping Lieutenant Col Teeton as he walked home from the barracks.
Before launching the attack, Esan claimed that his moped was broken and asked the father of two if he could use his phone.
Other footage taken from a car showed the attack continuing in the middle of the road, with Esan following and continuing to stab Lieutenant Colonel Teeton.
Lieutenant Col Teeton, a British Army officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan for 26 years, tearfully expressed his “forever gratitude” to the “heroes” who came to his aid, including his wife.
“I still relive the incident in my mind; I actually think it was a blessing that I was unconscious for most of the incident, as it meant I couldn’t remember much of being attacked,” he said.
“I don’t think I would have ever truly appreciated the bravery of my wife and strangers to thwart the attack, and then the quick thinking of a number of people who helped save my life.”
Medical personnel informed Lieutenant Colonel Teeton that his survival was a “miracle” given the extensive wounds to his neck, chest, abdomen, groin, arm and thigh. He added: “I never dreamed for a moment that I would be attacked like this on the streets of England, in a place where I felt safe.”
The court heard Esan, who moved to the UK from Nigeria in 2009, had made several unsuccessful attempts to join the British Army since 2020.
That same year, he was referred to mental health services after reporting hearing voices. In January 2023, her mother contacted an out-of-hours service, concerned that she had a knife in her purse.
Professor Nigel Blackwood, an expert witness in forensic psychiatry, said Esan “started thinking about vivid fantasies 18 months before acting them out” when he brought a knife home.
Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC noted Esan’s “interest” in knives along with the packaging of “Rambo” knives found in his bedroom. Since the middle of last year, Esan believed that he had been cast in the Kingsman movie and the Cyberpunk video game, and felt that his role was to “present and shoot”.
Esan, of Mooring Road, Rochester, is being treated at Broadmoor Hospital. Professor Blackwood confirmed that he was psychotic and would need lifelong treatment.
Esan pleaded guilty in January to attempted murder and possession of two bladed weapons, avoiding a trial scheduled for this month. He appeared in the dock Friday, accompanied by six Broadmoor staff and a detention officer.
