Paranoid cannabis addict dad killed baby son with a hammer
A CANNABIS addict who became so paranoid his partner was having an affair that he beat their baby son to death with a claw hammer was facing life behind bars yesterday.
Bidhya Sagar Das, 33, became obsessed with delusions that his Romanian girlfriend Christinela Datcu was hiding men in the house and plotted to kill her and their 16-month-old son because he wrongly believed she was sleeping with other men in the child’s bed.
One night, as the couple sat down to relax in front of the television after putting their son to bed, Das made a cup of tea for Miss Datcu, gave her a foot massage and promised her they were going to have a ‘special night’ together.
Moments later, when Miss Datcu went to take a shower, the hotel worker stormed into their son Gabriel’s bedroom and bludgeoned him to death.
Hearing her son scream, Miss Datcu rushed out of the bathroom to discover ‘a scene that was the stuff of nightmares’ as she found his blood- soaked body. She was heard screaming, ‘my kid, my kid’ as she ran into the street outside their flat in Finsbury Park, North London, for help at 11pm on March 18. The infant was rushed to hospital but died less than two hours later.
A young girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was left in a critical condition, but she survived the attack.
Das was arrested the next day after calling the police, saying: ‘Saturday night I did very bad, honestly.’ He is due to be sentenced today at the Old Bailey after admitting manslaughter by way of diminished responsi- bility and one count of attempted murder. The court heard that just days before the killing, Miss Datcu warned social services that Das was smoking too much cannabis and she feared he was becoming increasingly paranoid and irrational. A day before the killing, Das warned a taxi driver he was going to ‘kill Christinela, because she f**** men in the bed’, but it was dismissed as an idle threat.
Prosecutor Zoe Johnson QC said Das started to leave his mobile phone at home to record her movements, adding: ‘Things got so bad that on the occasions when they spent the night together... he removed his shoe laces and tied Miss Datcu’s underwear to his own, to ensure she could not get up without him knowing.’
The court heard that although the killer regularly smoked cannabis, experts were unable to say his drug use led to the killing. Friends described Das as ‘jealous’ and ‘crazy’, claiming the Bangladeshiborn hotel worker had often questioned whether he was the father of their son. Yesterday the Old Bai- ley heard how Miss Datcu still lives in terror of Das hunting her down to kill her.
The mother, who was not in court when Das appeared for the first of a two-day sentencing hearing, said in a victim impact statement: ‘I never want to see the face of my child’s father again.’
She added: ‘I am afraid and I live with the thought that if he is ever free, he would come to finish what he started that day – to kill me.’
Yesterday Das appeared in the dock flanked by mental health workers. Judge Martin Spencer will sentence Das later today, when he will decide whether to send him to a mental hospital or to prison.
‘The stuff of nightmares’