Varying descriptions of Zephaniah McLeod given by witnesses and the random nature of his stabbings made it difficult for detectives to make early links between the horrific attacks he brought to the streets of Birmingham

Although inquiries including stops-and-searches were carried out after the first incidents in the Constitution Hill and Barwick Street areas – near Snow Hill railway station – McLeod had returned to his home in Selly Oak in a taxi to re-arm himself.

The first wave of attacks finished at around 12.45am, while the fatal stabbing of Jacob Billington in Irving Street and subsequent attacks in Hurst Street happened between 1.49am and 2.08am.

Commenting on the efforts made to trace McLeod, Superintendent Jim Munro, of West Midlands Police, said: “McLeod started offending in the north side of the city centre, in Constitution Hill.

“He slowly moved into the area of Barwick Street, where prior to that he injured two more victims.

“He then dumped a knife that we subsequently found down a drain in Barwick Street before moving, walking across to the south side (of the city centre) and going into a pizza shop in Bristol Street, where he asked the staff there for a knife.

“They refused and called him a taxi. He went back to the Selly Oak area of the town, where he then armed himself again with a knife, returned back to the city centre, now on the south side, near to the Ibis Hotel, where he tragically injured another man and Jacob Billington, who tragically lost his life.”

McLeod, 28, then moved to the Hurst Street and Sherlock Street area, where he stabbed the final three of his eight victims before again heading home in a taxi.

Mr Munro told the PA news agency: “A police investigation then followed which painstakingly viewed many, many hours of CCTV and working with some of the information from witnesses and people that came forward, we were able to identify McLeod as being the person responsible.

“Internally within West Midlands Police the response and the investigation has been reviewed.

“The upshot of some of the information that has come from those processes is that ultimately there are evenings in Birmingham where stabbings are reported to the police – it’s not uncommon.

“What was identified during the early reports was that there were varying descriptions of the person who was responsible.

“And at that time, it wasn’t clear whether the first set of incidents which took place around Constitution Hill moving towards Barwick Street were actually connected due to the information that had been provided.”

Mr Munro added: “Officers were immediately deployed to the area. People were spoken to, indeed some people were stopped and actually searched as part of that process in order to identify who was responsible.

“But of course at this time, McLeod had actually returned back home to arm himself again and returned back to another part of the city centre, where he continued his offending.

“Post-investigation it was easy to identify those links, but at that time of course, in the heat of the information that was being provided, those offences weren’t put together, pieced together at that particular time, and the pattern of offending wasn’t obvious.”

Early analysis of key CCTV cameras and information provided by a witness from the pizza shop where McLeod had called a cab allowed officers to establish that the person behind the first bout of incidents had travelled to Selly Oak.

Officers then identified and arrested McLeod in an armed operation in the early hours of the following day.

Due to his psychiatric problems, officers were unable to interview McLeod about the motivation for the attacks.

Mr Munro said: “Due to some of the mental health issues around McLeod and some of the psychiatric assessments that took place whilst he was in police custody, we were actually unable to interview him and put to him some of the evidence that had been put together by officers during that initial phase of the investigation.

“So we’ve never been able to directly speak with McCleod and obtain an account around what took place that night.”

McCleod was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court to life with a minimum term of 21 years, to initially be served at a high-security hospital, for the attacks in the early hours of September 6, 2020.