A man has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of an 87-year-old who was fatally stabbed while riding a mobility scooter in west London.
Lee Byer stabbed Thomas O’Halloran in the neck and chest in Greenford in August 2022.
On Monday, the 45-year-old, of no fixed address, denied murder but pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter by diminished responsibility and having an offensive weapon.
Prosecutor Gareth Patterson KC accepted the pleas after mental health reports found Byer was psychotic, hearing voices, suffering from paranoid delusions and paranoid schizophrenia.
He said the defendant’s mental state provided an explanation for what was a “motiveless attack”.
A member of the public found the victim on his scooter coming from a passageway that runs between Runnymede Gardens and Welland Gardens and called the police soon after 4pm on 16 August 2022.
Despite being given first aid, Mr O’Halloran was pronounced at the scene at 4.54pm.
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He and the defendant were seen on CCTV heading towards the passageway where their paths crossed.
Apart from Byer, no-one else went in or out of the area when the victim was attacked, the footage showed.
When he left the passageway, a knife could be seen in Byer’s hand.
He was caught on camera putting a knife handle in a drain in Haymill Close on the way back to his mother’s house. Forensic analysis discovered the victim’s blood on the handle, but the blade was not found.
In police interviews following his arrest at his mother’s house on 18 August, he denied being the suspect caught on CCTV, claiming he was in his mum’s garden or the park at the time.
Months before the killing, footage on social media showed musician Mr O’Halloran busking as he raised money for Ukraine.
Old Bailey Judge Mark Lucraft adjourned sentencing until 10 May.
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