Nicholas Fryers, 57, stabbed a female work colleague more than 70 times – including in the head – during an attack at a Sainsbury’s distribution centre in Dartford, Kent. He was working on day parole while jailed for a previous murder in 1993.
By Dylan Donnelly, Current Affairs Reporter
Monday 22 July 2024 21:25, United Kingdom
A man has been sentenced to life in prison after trying to kill a colleague with a screwdriver while he was being released from prison.
Nicholas Fryers, 57, stabbed a colleague more than 70 times – including in the head – during an attack at a Sainsbury’s distribution centre in Dartford, Kent.
Kent Police said Fryers was a serving prisoner at Stanford Hill Prison after being convicted of murder in Wales in 1993, but had been working at the Littlebrook Manor Way centre for about two months on parole.
He had become obsessed with the victim while he was working, including buying her gifts, the jury heard.
According to the Crown Prosecution Service, Fryers and the victim had become friends, but he hoped to be her “boyfriend on the side”.
The victim told Fryers they were just friends and ended their friendship after an argument on the night of the incident (April 9, 2023).
Fryers asked the victim to retrieve some items from his car as he planned to leave work early, but he then attacked her by pulling her to the ground and stabbing her repeatedly with a screwdriver, the CPS said.
As Fryers carried out the attack, Kent Police said two other colleagues arrived in the car park and tried to stop the assault.
Fryers then got into his vehicle and fled the parking lot.
Before he left the parking lot, one of the men who tried to intervene managed to remove the license plate from his car.
Police used this information to track Fryer as he headed towards Preston, Lancashire, where he was arrested on April 10.
Fryer was later convicted of attempted murder on November 17 and was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 17 years and four months before being eligible for parole.
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“A terrifying attack”
Senior Crown prosecutor for the South East CPS, Manjit Bath, described the incident as “a terrifying attack that Fryers planned, luring his victim into the car park before stabbing her multiple times”.
“She was exceptionally lucky to escape without serious injury and none of us can imagine the trauma she has suffered as a result,” he added.
“There was no dispute in this case that Fryers attacked his victim, but he maintained that he did not intend to seriously injure or kill her, despite the fact that his attack lasted nearly two and a half minutes.
“Thanks to expert evidence that Fryers used a very high level of force in his attack, we were able to prove that he attempted to kill his victim.
“These statements were confirmed by the testimonies of two witnesses, who attempted to intervene and described the attack as “sustained, brutal and frenzied.”
Kent Police Detective Inspector Ross Gurden added: “This was a terrifying incident in which Fryers launched a vicious attack on a young woman who was alone with him in a car park.
“He completely lost control of his car and tried to inflict as many injuries on the victim as possible. It was by chance that the victim did not lose his life that night.”
