A knifeman told a cabbie “you’re going to be famous” then stabbed his chest through a car window.

Amir Sharifrazy, 51, took chilling photos of his victim and other people unknown to him around Folkestone in the weeks leading to the gratuitous attack.

Delusioned and fixated, Sharifrazy believed his subjects had wronged him despite having never met them, a court heard.

His campaign of hate-photography reached boiling point when he plunged a knife into cabbie Tariq Mir’s sternum as he waited for a passenger.

Sharifrazy was sentenced to nine-and-a-half years at Canterbury Crown Court after a judge deemed him a “danger to any stranger.”

Prosecutors explained the saga started when Mr Mir stopped and waited for Sharifrazy to use a town centre pedestrian crossing.

“Part way across, the defendant started taking pictures of Mr Mir’s car,” barrister Peter Forbes explained.

“Mr Mir asked why he was taking pictures, to which the defendant said ‘don’t worry, you will find out, you will be famous soon.’

“Two hours later Mr Mir stopped at traffic lights, and through the window the defendant racially abused him.”

About a fortnight later, on July 5, their paths would cross a final time, with almost tragic consequences.

Sharifrazy started a row with Mr Mir who was parked outside the defendants Guildhall Street flat waiting for a passenger.

He told the cabbie: “I will slam you to the wall man - you don’t know me.”

Sharifrazy disappeared back inside his home as Mr Mir telephoned his wife.

The defendant soon emerged with a blade and marched to the driver side window, then repeatedly kicked the door.

Mr Mir was left exposed, when, after winding up his window Sharifrazy punched it with such force it wound back down.

“It was at that point the defendant lunged with the knife through the driver side window,” Mr Forbes continued.

“Mr Mir knew he had been stabbed, it caused him a lot of pain - he looked down and saw blood.”

“It was at that point the defendant lunged with the knife through the driver side window...”

The court heard Sharifrazy tried goading his victim into leaving the car but an eye-witness spooked him into retreating home.

Armed police raided the property and arrested Sharifrazy as Mr Mir was treated for a single chest wound at Ashford’s William Harvey Hospital.

The knife miraculously missed vital organs.

Police discovered various pictures of other individuals on Sharifrazy’s phone.

“He said he understood they weren’t following him but (said) he does get paranoid,” Mr Forbes said.

Mr Mir told the court he believed he was going to die and feels paranoid about being followed.

Judge Mark Weekes told Sharifrazy he posed a “danger to any stranger” with his current delusional thinking and that he met the legal requirements for dangerousness.

“This was offending of a very grave order indeed.

“It is perhaps a mercy for both you and Mr Mir that you are not facing a radically more serious charge for this offence.”

Sharifrazy, pleaded guilty to wounding with intent at a previous hearing. On Thursday, March 12, he was jailed for six-and-a-half years with a further three years on licence.

Mitigating, Christopher Ray said his client struggled with a personality disorder and had become disengaged with mental health services at the time of the attack.

After sentencing, DS Robert Goodban said: "It was an extraordinary and serious assault by Sharifrazy against someone who had done nothing to provoke that response.

"During the night of the attack and the previous confrontations by Sharifrazy, the victim had simply been trying to work.

"It would have been an understandably frightening incident for the victim and I hope the court result provides him with reassurance that Sharifrazy is no longer able to threaten and hurt him or anyone else."

To read more of our in depth coverage of all of the major trials coming out of crown and magistrates' courts across the county, click here.

For information on how we can report on court proceedings, click here.

Read more: All the latest news from Folkestone