A radicalised Sydney student who repeatedly stabbed a stranger with a hunting knife in a "violent, ferocious and inhumane"
Ihsas Khan, 25, was found guilty in May of engaging in a terrorist act involving stabbing Wayne Greenhalgh, 57, multiple times with the intention of killing him on September 10, 2016, at Minto.
The NSW Supreme Court jury rejected Khan's case that he was suffering from a mental illness at the time and that a jinn, or supernatural being, instructed him to kill someone.
Justice Geoffrey Bellew on Wednesday jailed Khan for 36 years, setting a non-parole period of 27 years, noting Mr Greenhalgh was clearly "acutely traumatised" by the stabbing.
Mr Greenhalgh survived his life-threatening injuries after running to a nearby hair dressing salon for help. Source: AAP
He was satisfied the original intention of Khan, who described himself as "an unskilled assassin", was to carry out the crime on the 15th anniversary of the World Trade Centre terrorist attack in New York to gain international recognition.
Supporters of Mr Greenhalgh clapped and cheered as the judge read out the sentence.
Outside court, the smiling victim said: "I'm glad he got what he bloody well deserves."
"He's not sorry for what he did," Mr Greenhalgh told reporters.
"I am just glad he didn't beat me in the end."
Khan had testified that he purchased the knife in February 2016 and was planning to use it to kill Jews at Sydney University, where he was studying pharmacy, the judge said.
After he was repeatedly stabbed, Mr Greenhalgh - who was bleeding heavily - took refuge in a nearby hairdressing salon.
Khan touched some of the blood on the driveway, saying "what a beautiful sight" and later told police: "There was blood absolutely everywhere. Beautiful sight. Beau-ti-ful".
Victim Wayne Greenhalgh (right) and wife Bronwen Greenhalgh celebrate as they leave Parramatta Court. Source: AAP
When attacking his victim, Khan was heard to shout "Allahu Akbar", an Arabic phrase meaning "God is great".
The judge found Khan had targeted Mr Greenhalgh, whom he had seen in the neighbourhood, because he saw him wearing a t-shirt bearing an image "which would objectively be viewed as innocuous" but at odds with his extremist views.
It bore a stars and stripes logo accompanied by the words "Home of the free, because of the brave".
"Those words were printed over a background of a well-known image depicting military personnel raising the flag of the United States of America following the victory in the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II," the judge said.
Khan did not just set out to harm his victim but "was on a mission to kill him".
But for the intervention of a neighbour, it was highly likely he would have achieved his stated aim.
"In stabbing Mr Greengalgh, the offender was motivated by an entrenched, immoral and depraved ideology which sought to justify attacking and killing innocent persons in the name of a religious and/or ideological cause."
