Residents had lived in fear of man who fatally stabbed neighbour ‘for years’
Can Arslan, who knifed Matthew Boorman to death in Walton Cardiff, Gloucestershire, had been threatening locals for more than a decade.
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Neighbours of a man who stabbed a father-of-three to death on the victim’s front lawn had lived in fear of him for years.
Can Arslan, 52, murdered Matthew Boorman, 43, in Snowdonia Road in Walton Cardiff, near Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, on October 5 last year.
The Boormans and people living nearby had suffered years of abuse from Arslan, and the victim’s widow, Sarah, said they had not used their back garden for more than a year because of his threats.
He would yell at them that he knew where she and her husband worked, and film the windows of their children’s bedrooms.
Arslan, who has been diagnosed with a paranoid, unstable and anti-social personality disorder, would speak loudly about the things he planned to do to the family while pretending to be on the phone.
Before the murder, Arslan was facing eviction proceedings and was subject to an injunction barring him from contacting his neighbours directly or indirectly in a bid to stop him abusing them.
In May 13 2021, Mr Boorman made a statement saying he genuinely feared for his safety and that of his family.
“I am very alarmed he made references in his conversations about missing prison and wanting to be arrested,” he said.
“I genuinely fear his conversation was meant to be overheard by us, to let us know that he isn’t scared of the police, is willing to go to prison, and when he is released he won’t forget about the incident.”
He added: “I also believe he’s trying to intimidate us into not making complaints to police. I am very scared of what Mr Arslan can do.
“He makes reference to being ex-special forces and has made threats previously of rape. This week he has taken images of my daughters’ bedrooms.
“I don’t know what he’s capable of and this causes myself and my wife to be continually anxious regarding the nature of Mr Arslan.”
After killing Mr Boorman, Arslan forced his way into the home of Peter Marsden and stabbed him eight times.
Mr Marsden said Arslan had “bullied, abused and threatened” his family for 12 years but this had escalated since 2018 following an alleged scratch to the defendant’s wife’s car.
“(Arslan) sent me multiple abusive emails to my business email, started hanging around all the time on the driveway and outside my back gate, waiting for me to get home,” Mr Marsden said in a statement.
“He would call me a mother******, a cocksucker, tell me his organising a hitman from the dark web to sort of me and my family out – just general threatening and abusive behaviour.”
He added: “He told me he’s crazy and has murdered people before and would do it again.”
Mr Marsden said he had installed multiple expensive security upgrades to his house, including a fence down the driveway, a high-strength back gate, anti-climb fencing, and a new front door with no letterbox so no-one could post anything dangerous.
He said he had the “highest specification CCTV system with triple recording locations in case something happens to the main network video recorder, video doorbells, security camera lighting and cloud storage as another back-up, and an alarm system”.
“All this is solely to do with the threats he’s made against us,” he said.
“In general he’s made our lives miserable and left us feeling unsafe in our own home to the point that my partner hates living here with him as a neighbour and would move tomorrow given the option.”
During his rampage Arslan told a third neighbour, Ulysses Alonso: “You’re next.”
Mr Alonso told police he and his wife had had to put up with “years of conflict” from Arslan, stemming from the time he asked the defendant to park more considerately.
“When I finally approached him and asked him, calmly and respectfully to park with consideration, he was racially abusive. I was threatened with my life, he threatened to kill and rape my wife,” Mr Alonso said.
“His preferred language is the repeated use of the following phrases – Spanish c***, motherf***** and cocksucker.
“These are all used every time there is any confrontation.
“This also has an obvious strain on our family life, with the overriding fear that Mr Arslan will one day act upon his continued threats.”
Arslan denied murdering Mr Boorman, claiming his personality disorder reduced his offence to manslaughter due to diminished responsibility.
He was unanimously convicted of murder by a jury on Tuesday after a trial at Bristol Crown Court.