Heartbreak As Popular World Class MMA Fighter Hacked To Death By Brother

It was a red-letter-day when a popular British MMA fighter known as ‘The Nightmare‘ was hacked to death by his half-brother as he celebrated his 30th birthday.

A world class MMA fighter, Jahreau Shepherd popularly known as ‘The Nightmare‘ has been stabbed by his 19-year-old half brother, Dwight Freeman from Vauxhall on Wednesday, July 11 2020.

…….A court heard that Jahreau Shepherd was celebrating with his family at a BBQ when Dwight Freeman, began hacking at him with a machete, while he pleaded guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility and another count of wounding with intent.

…On Monday, Judge Richard Marks QC sentenced Freeman to a hospital order without limit of time.

Prosecutor Caroline Carberry QC outlined the facts of the case to the courtroom, where friends and family of the pair sat.

……The victim was an “accomplished” MMA fighter who lived with his mother and half-brother, who was known as DJ, Carberry told the court.

Mr. Shepherd behaved like a “father figure” to his younger brother, and tried to get him to “fix up and be better” and “stop smoking skunk cannabis” but the defendant at times had been “physically imposing” and there were issued between the siblings, the court heard.

…..On the evening of the killing, Mr. Shepherd held a birthday party and barbecue in a park, where around 60 guests were invited. He had told them that the dress code was to wear white – but Freeman arrived at around 10pm wearing black and with his hood up. Numerous friends looked on as he carried out a “terrifying, sustained and unprovoked attack with a large knife or knives”, Ms. Carberry said.

….Eyewitnesses described the weapons as a machete, a samurai sword, and a large zombie knife. Mr. Shepherd suffered 13 wounds in total, including to his back, shoulder, thigh, face, and stomach, with the two fatal injuries being around 19cm deep.

Freeman only stopped the frenzied attack when a bottle was thrown at him, causing him to drop one of the weapons.

When 26-year-old Joel Belgrave tried to intervene, he was also stabbed and suffered a punctured lung.

Freeman fled the scene, discarding a knife under a car, and went on the run in the west country before he was tracked down in Cornwall, he dyed and shaved his hair in a bid to alter his appearance, and booked a room under a false name.

….Psychiatrists diagnosed Freeman with paranoid schizophrenia while he was in custody, the court heard.

….Giving evidence, Dr. Emmanuel Okoro said the teenager’s severe mental illness had “played a significant part in the offences”.

Sentencing, Judge Marks told the defendant: “At the party, for reasons which are unclear, you had armed yourself with two-bladed articles, one of which was either a machete or a large zombie knife.

“You attacked your brother with one or more of the weapons. You did so in a ferocious manner causing him no fewer than 13 stab wounds.” Such was the degree of violence used by you on your brother, one can only conclude your intention was to kill him.

….“The severity of the injuries were such they were unsurvivable and he was pronounced dead at the scene. It’s obviously a very tragic case, more so because your mother in the six months before events had made a number of appointments for you to attend your GP but you had failed to attend, thinking there was nothing wrong with you.”