UK: Failed South Sudanese asylum seeker jailed after bringing hatchet and knife to Heywood school

Both Douk Deng (Image Credit: Greater Manchester Police)

Both Douk Deng, a South Sudanese national, became “increasingly frustrated” that immigration authorities were not providing assistance in his bid to stay and work in the UK.

The 21-year-old, who has applied for and been refused asylum three times, wanted to “create a scene for attention” to aid his cause, Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard.

He was arrested after workmen confronted him on the premises of Edgar Wood Academy in Heywood, Greater, Manchester, on 6 August 2025.

A member of the public earlier raised the alarm after he was observed “behaving oddly” in the street nearby en route to the secondary school holding a petrol can with a hammer tied to his belt.

Both Douk Deng was disarmed by local response officers after a school staff members reported a suspicious man (Credit: Greater Manchester Police)

Deng was “mumbling” as he walked a “full circuit” around the school, which was closed to pupils for the summer, as he scanned the building and then approached it before builders working on site became concerned and called the police.

The defendant was walking away from the premises when he was detained, the court was told.

Along with the hammer and hatchet, he was found to be in possession of a seven-inch kitchen knife and half a litre of petrol.

A day earlier he was spotted “acting oddly” at another school, Holy Family RC and CE College in Rochdale, also closed to pupils, where he kicked and damaged its intercom.

Sara Haque, defending, said: “He maintains that his actions were not motivated by any desire to injury or harm any person.

“This was a bizarre and compulsive act lacking in any type of maturity at a time when he was in deep distress having left Sudan and his family in traumatic circumstances.

“He wanted attention and he was in crisis but he was not motivated by hostility towards children, teachers or the wider public. There is no evidence that he threatened any individual.”

Deng was arrested by police after acting suspiciously outside of a school in Heywood (Credit: Greater Manchester Police)

Deng, who has a wife and children, was placed in multiple accommodation housing (HMO) on his arrival in the UK, the court was told.

Ms Haque said: “He found himself in a foreign country with very limited English and unable to work because of his immigration status. He believed and felt no-one was listening to him and no-one was helping him.

“He felt he had reached the of his ability to cope within the HMO where others in similar circumstances to him had been assisted by the immigration authorities.

“He became increasingly frustrated that the same was not happening for him. His only wish is to work and find money to support his family.”

Psychiatric reports on the defendant had not identified any major mental health issues, the court heard.

Deng, of Heywood, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to a range of offences including criminal damage and possessing weapons and a knife in a public place and on school premises.

He was jailed for seven-and-a-half years and told he must serve up to half his sentence in custody and the remainder on licence.

Judge Bernadette Baxter told him: “I have no power to order the Home Office to do anything.

“But in my judgment, given your circumstances as a failed asylum seeker who has been in custody for the best part of a year, the Home Office should be doing something rather than nothing to deal with your status in this country.”

Source: https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2026-07-28/asylum-seeker-armed-with-hammer-at-school-wanted-attention