Irish resident who went on a rampage stabbing five homeless people jailed for 23 years

Kieran McLoughlin (32) slashed four men in the face, and another in the back in a series of attacks across Piccadilly Gardens and Market Street on the evening of Sunday, January 12 last year.

One of the horrific incidents took place in full view of a busy Metrolink stop that caused panic as witnesses initially believed it was terrorist attack.

However, it later emerged that McLoughlin had actually targeted vulnerable men who were begging on the streets.

Police who rushed to the scene managed to taser McLoughlin at Market Street tram stop after he had been confronted by members of the public.

McLoughlin had previously lived in Ireland before moving to the UK in recent years.

The court was told he has 115 previous offences in Ireland, and a further 25 in the UK.

Manchester Crown Court heard that the man who was attacked was standing on Parker Street near Piccadilly bus station, as he was begging.

McLoughlin slashed him to the face, causing a 15cm wound.

He then walked towards Greggs on Market Street, where two homeless men were sitting and attacked them before mobbing towards Primark.

There, Tommy Dennison was drinking a cup of coffee when a man slashed him across the face with a lock-knife without saying a word

Before stabbing him, he snatched a cup which another homeless man had been using to collect money, and said 'payback's a b****'.

He had lent down to pretend to give Mr Dennison some money when McLoughlin also slashed him in the face.

Mr Dennison, then 52, was left needing 18 stitches.

McLoughlin then slashed another homeless man to the face, who was sitting leaning against a bin near Debenhams.

After his fourth knife attack, McLoughlin walked onto the Market Street tram stop, and sat down before suddenly jumping up and stabbed a fifth homeless man, this time to the back.

He climbed back onto the stop, and got on a tram before a gang of young men crowded around him.

As police stopped the tram from leaving, plain clothes officers took McLoughlin to the ground and tasered him.

Prosecutor Andy Evans said the stabbings caused “fear and panic” as it had taken place during a period of heightened fear and security following a terrorist atrocity in the city two years earlier.

"The victims were highly vulnerable, homeless men begging, all attacked without warning, the majority whilst looking in the other direction,” he said. “There was clear targeting of homeless men.

"The wounds caused were shocking, and were caused in full view of the hundreds of people, including children, present at the scene."

McLoughlin at first said it was a case of mistaken identity and claimed he didn't have any issues with homeless people.

"It’s not about the homeless, I don’t like Spice, I don’t like anything like that," he said. "I don’t like any drugs, people that takes drugs or people that’s off on s*** around me."

However, he said homeless people 'should be getting off their a*** to do work'.

A judge described the attacks as a “short but vicious campaign of cruel, cold, calculated, and targeted violence”.

Now McLoughlin, who refused to attend his sentencing hearing, has been sentenced to 18 years in jail, and given an extra five year period on licence when he is released.