Anthony Esan has been sentenced to life imprisonment and will be detained in hospital “for as long as necessary” after trying to kill a uniformed Army officer, Lieutenant Colonel Mark Teeton, near Brompton Barracks, Chatham, in 2024. Esan was handed a minimum term of seven years and 162 days for repeatedly stabbing Lieutenant Colonel Mark Teeton using two knives in Sally Port Gardens, near Brompton Barracks, Chatham, on July 23 2024.

The prosecution said it was a “vicious and deliberate” attack targeting a soldier and that in the lead up to the stabbing Esan had bought a set of knives from Argos days earlier and searched online for attacks, including of murdered soldier Lee Rigby. Forensic psychiatrists told Maidstone Crown Court it is more likely that Esan set out to stab a soldier but that the main driver of his actions was psychosis. Experts agreed he had schizophrenia at the time of the attack.

Lt Col Teeton told a three-day sentencing hearing on Monday that he was grateful to be alive.

The assault left him with a large wound to the right side of his neck, as well as stab wounds to the front and back of his chest and abdomen. He also suffered injuries to his lower abdomen, right groin, right upper arm, and left thigh.

Lt Col Teeton, who has served in the army for 26 years and completed two tours in Iraq and two in Afghanistan, paid tribute to those who came to his aid. He particularly praised his wife, Eileen, for her courage and support during the ordeal.

During the four-day sentencing, the court heard how Lt Col Teeton’s wife, Eileen Teeton, had rushed to a soldier lying on the ground outside the family home, before realising it was her husband.

She pushed Esan off him before realising that he had a knife and “felt a wave of terror” that she may need to run for her life, but he chose not to go after her.

Mrs Teeton said in her victim impact statement: “I watched horrified by his continued savage attack, and realised it was my husband on the ground and he was carving at his face and neck.”

The prosecution described her actions in pushing Esan away as “remarkable”.

Mrs Teeton added that when visiting her husband in hospital, he said: “Do the people at work know what he tried to do to me?”

She asked him what did he try to do, and he replied: “Cut my head off! Like Lee Rigby.”

Footage shown to the court showed the moments Esan parks up his moped and stops Lt Col Teeton walking home from the barracks at 5.53pm.

He asked the father-of-two if he could use his phone because his moped had broken down and he needed to call someone to come and help, before beginning his attack, the court heard.

More footage from a car showed the attack in the middle of the road with Esan stabbing Lt Col Teeton, who gets up and walks the other way, and Esan going after him and continuing his attack.

Esan was born in Nigeria and moved to the UK in 2009 and lived in the Southwark area of London before the family relocated to Kent in 2022.

The court heard that Esan had made several unsuccessful attempts to join the British Army in the years before his attack, with his first application in 2020.

That same year, he had been referred to mental health services as he appeared to be mentally unwell and reported hearing voices.

The court heard that in January 2023, Esan’s mother had contacted an out-of-hours service concerned that he had knives in his bag.

Expert witness in forensic psychiatry Professor Nigel Blackwood said that when he brought knives back to the family home, that Esan “began to entertain murderous fantasies 18 months before he enacted them”.

Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC had also said Esan had an “interest” in knives, with packaging for two “Rambo” knives later to be recovered from his bedroom.

Esan made references to the “day of the devil”, and also told officers his name was Esan, which meant “karma”, when he was arrested, the court heard.

Sentencing him on Friday, Mr Justice Picken said: “The attack on Mr Teeton was targeted and deliberate.

“You were looking for a soldier with the intention that that soldier should die, as underlined by the fact you had looked up the killing of Lee Rigby on the internet.”