The family of a British backpacker knifed while trying to protect his friend said they had been left ‘bereft’ yesterday after he died of his injuries.
Charity worker Thomas Jackson, 30, was stabbed in the head, neck and torso around 20 times as he battled in vain to defend Mia Ayliffe-Chung, who was killed.
He bravely stepped in after aspiring model Miss Ayliffe-Chung, 21, was dragged out of bed by Smail Ayad, 29, at the dormitory they shared in an Australian hostel while working at a remote farm.
The kickboxer screamed ‘Allahu Akbar’, Arabic for ‘God is great’, while stabbing her, say witnesses, and hurt 12 police officers who used pepper spray and a Taser to subdue him.
Despite his jihadi-style outburst, police have ruled out links to terrorism, and say tests found he had been using cannabis.
Mr Jackson spent the last six days fighting for his life, but yesterday his family revealed they had to turn off his life-support machine at Townsville Hospital, Queensland.His father Les, 58, who had flown 10,000 miles from the family home in Congleton, Cheshire, said: ‘We are bereft. Our darling Tom has left us and the world is a poorer place.
‘Thanks again to everyone for the love and support you have given us over the last few days, we will be forever grateful.
‘There is dark and evil in this world perpetrated by a few, but so much more love and light emanates from so many more. That thought will sustain us.’
In a Facebook message, Mr Jackson’s younger sister Olivia, 23, urged people not to remember her brother as a victim, saying: ‘To everyone back home and everyone here, there are literally not enough words to thank you for your support. All I ask is that you don’t remember Tom as a victim. You remember him as a friend, cherish the memories you had together and be thankful you got to meet him.’
Miss Ayliffe-Chung and Mr Jackson were attacked at Shelley’s Backpackers in Home Hill, a remote rural town in Queensland, last week.
Ayad is said to have told guests that he and Miss Ayliffe-Chung, of Wirksworth, Derbyshire, were ‘deeply in love’. But he was outraged to discover she had posed for nearly nude photographs and did not share his feelings.
The French national had been charged with one count of murder and two of attempted murder, one relating to Mr Jackson, which detectives yesterday said would be upgraded to murder.
A YouCaring fundraising page to help Mr Jackson’s parents had yesterday raised almost £7,000. Queensland police are considering giving Mr Jackson a posthumous award for bravery.
Det Supt Ray Rohweder said it was ‘pretty clear that Tom acted in a selfless way, at great personal risk in an attempt to provide assistance to Mia’.
Daily Mail