A chauffeur for a wealthy Saudi family claims he shattered a pensioner’s car window with his bare fist because he was ‘in shock’ after his aunt and cousins died in the Grenfell Tower fire.
Okasha Aziz, 25, got out of his silver BMW and punched through Adrian Dorman’s passenger window in a fit of road rage hours after the tragic blaze killed 71 victims on June 14.
Aziz struck Mr Dorman in the face after his hand crashed through the glass during the attack on Uxbridge Road, Shepherd’s Bush, West London.
Okasha Aziz smashed through the window of Adrian Dorman’s car in a fit of rage hours after the Grenfell fire
He sped away from the scene but was arrested and charged with one count of common assault and one count of causing £300 of criminal damage after his bloodied victim called the police.
Aziz admitted the charges at City of London Magistrates’ Court and claimed he had lost the plot after finding out that his relatives were unaccounted for following the inferno.
His solicitor Claudia Francois said he had helped desperate residents at the scene in North Kensington before attacking Mr Dorman on his way home from work.
The court heard Aziz has since been sacked from his job driving women around for a ‘high-ranking’ Saudi family.
‘That day was the day of the Grenfell tower tragedy. He assisted in trying to put out the blaze. His aunt and her children died in the fire,’ said Ms Francois.
‘You have somebody which is under copious amount of stress. He hasn’t eaten and was in an anxious state.
The fire killed 71 people and Mr Aziz claims to have helped residents as they were forced to flee the tower
‘He worked as a chauffeur, transferring females of a high-ranking family. He is extremely remorseful for these actions, he is entirely ashamed. He has lost his job and good character.’
The court heard Aziz lost his temper when he was caught in major traffic diversions due to the fire on his way home from work.
He pulled alongside Mr Dorman at a set of lights and shouted: ‘Get a bloody move on you silly git.’
The victim recalled the terrifying attack that followed in an impact statement.
Mr Dorman said: ‘I saw the vehicle trying to make passage through the traffic to take over cars, driving erratically, weaving in and out of bus lanes.
‘As I stopped at the crossing of the lights, the person in the BMW pulled up and gestured to get a move on. He said “get a move on you silly git”. Then he called me a racist. I don’t know why.
‘The next thing I know he reverses his car around mine. He got out to the drivers door tried to unlock the door, however I locked it.
Mr Aziz says his aunt was killed in the fire and that she sent a video of herself and her children shortly before they died
‘I wound my window up, I could see he wasn’t a reasonable guy. He asked me to get out of the car to sort things out.
‘He tried to open my driver side door, however he was unable to. The next thing I know he tried to break my window with his bare fist.
‘The window shattered. The glass went all over me cutting my left index finger. He then punched me on the side of my face.
‘He then ran back to his car, did a U-turn and sped off in the opposite direction. I was shaken by the incident when the glass broke as a normal person couldn’t break it.’
Aziz has previously said his family members – who weren’t named in court – sent him a video from the 20th floor of Grenfell Tower just before they were ‘burned alive’.
He told Russia Today: ‘We have got friends and family who live upstairs init, but we couldn’t go in.
‘We know they are trapped and, like, you can just see little kids, you can see little kids yeah, their hands on the windows and crying for help.
‘I have got an aunty who lives on the 20th floor, she sent us a video with my cousins, know what I mean, just before they were burned alive.
‘I know they didn’t survive… They gave up hope. They thought there was helicopters out there coming to save them.’
Aziz, of Shepherd’s Bush, admitted one count of common assault and one count of causing criminal damage. He is due to be sentenced at the same court on November 24.