Mentally-ill man beat mum to death with a cricket bat
‘KIND AND LOVING’ MUM DIED AFTER SUSTAINED ASSAULT
A MENTALLY-ill man beat his mum to death with a cricket bat in their front room, a jury has found.
Shanil Patel, 32, attacked his 62-yearold mum Hansa Patel, a retired Ealing hospital worker, at the home they shared in Greenford.
On the afternoon of November 25 2019, her son repeatedly hit her over the head with a cricket bat in the living room of their home in Drew Gardens, as her husband took a nap upstairs.
Officers and paramedics from the London Ambulance Service attended, supported by a police helicopter.
Ms Patel was pronounced dead 30 minutes later.
After the attack, Patel left the house to wander the streets until he was arrested the following morning, the Old Bailey heard on November 10.
Patel had been deemed unfit to stand trial owing to the paranoid schizophrenia from which he has suffered since 2009.
Following a “trial of the facts”, a jury found by a majority of 10 to two that Patel did the acts that led to his mother’s death.
Prosecutor Lisa Wilding QC said Patel’s “kind and loving” mum had recently retired from a job at Ealing New Hospital to help care for him.
Patel’s illness had been managed by medication, but that day something appeared to have “triggered” the sustained and violent assault, Ms Wilding said.
The prosecutor said: “Shanil’s illness would come in ebbs and flows but he had found the first lockdown hard, although seemed to be coping better with the second.
“He suffered from hallucinations that had previously told him to hurt people, but Shanil had been able to control them.”
The court heard Patel last had contact with mental health services shortly before lockdown.
Sentencing was adjourned until December 16 for psychiatric reports to be prepared.