A teenager who stabbed two ‘vulnerable’ taxi drivers said he was suffering drug withdrawal symptoms and was trying to get money to buy more ‘vape liquid’.
Hattam Assaad, 19, pleaded guilty to attacking the drivers with a knife in two separate incidents within 24 hours in Sydney’s west in March 2024.
He was sentenced to four years in jail in Parramatta District Court on Friday, with Judge Mahony saying the knife was capable of causing ‘serious injury’.
The court heard Assaad was just 17-years-old when he was first introduced to the ‘vape liquid’, which he was told contained cannabis.
He later discovered the vape liquid was spiked with a synthetic opioid, which the teenager now believes was fentanyl.
Assaad, the eldest of eight children, was suffering drug withdrawal symptoms and was suffering with addiction when he attacked the taxi drivers.
In the first attack, he brandished a 20cm blade, pressed it to the driver’s shoulder, and demanded $500 after he got in his cab at South Granville on March 28.
Assaad became angered after finding out the fare was twice what he expected.
Assaad will be eligible for parole next year after attacking two taxi drivers with a knife
‘I just turned that day,’ the teenager told the court.
‘I don’t know what happened, he was just not listening to me.’
The driver pressed his duress button and parked at the Speedway petrol station at Guildford, where Assaad fled with the dashcam.
The following day, he attacked a 42-year-old driver at Guildford.
‘Give me $600. If you don’t give it to me I will smash you,’ he reportedly told the driver, before taking his mobile phone.
He stabbed the driver in the hand and arm multiple times before he escaped.
The driver underwent surgery on August 31, the same day Assaad was arrested.
The teenager told officers he was a heavy user of opioids, and had used illicit substances in the 48 hours before the attacks.
One of Assaad’s victims was stabbed in the hand and arm multiple times
The court heard how his victims were still traumatised from the stabbings; suffering isolation, physical pain, emotional distress and anxiety.
In an apology letter, Assaad wrote: ‘Not one day goes by where I don’t feel guilty or overwhelmed by what I’ve done.
‘I apologise to everyone I’ve hurt and I will learn from this big mistake I’ve made.’
Judge Phillip Mahony said his drug use was due to PTSD and unresolved trauma.
The court heard Assaad had claimed he had been carrying a switch knife for protection after a gun was put to his head just months before the attacks.
Assaad pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and inflicting actual bodily harm, and assault with intention to rob armed with an offensive weapon wound/grievous bodily harm.
He will be eligible for parole on August 2, 2026, backdated to his first day in custody.
