Released schizophrenic killed refugee hours later
AMAN murdered a refugee and cut off his penis hours after being released from a psychiatric hospital.
Jeffrey Barry, 56, attacked his neighbour, Kamil Ahmad, 49, at his flat in Wells Road, Bristol, at about 2am on July 7 last year.
The murder took place hours after Barry, who has paranoid schizophrenia, was released from a psychiatric hospital.
Bristol Crown Court heard psychiatrists had opposed Barry’s release, but a mental health tribunal ruled that he should be discharged.
Barry had called police weeks before, claiming that Mr Ahmad was a rapist, a paedophile and a terrorist in his birth country of Iraq.
Minutes before murdering Mr Ahmad, he told a community psychiatric nurse that he was “criminally insane” and not responsible for his actions.
But a jury unanimously convicted Barry, who is being held at Broadmoor Hospital, of murder following a two-week trial.
After the verdict, Mrs Justice May told the jury that Barry has a “chronic, enduring mental illness that requires treatment”.
Mr Ahmad’s brother, Kamaran Ahmad Ali, described him as a “much-loved brother, uncle and cousin”.
“If he had been protected by the authorities, he would be alive today. Why was he not protected?” he said.
The family’s solicitor, Tony Murphy, of Bhatt Murphy, described the murder as “preventable”.
“The evidence heard at trial points to a systemic, multi-agency failure to protect a known victim of violent race-hate crime from a known perpetrator,” he said. “The family ask the authorities to be open about their failure to protect Kamil so that other lives can be protected.”
Barry was racist towards Mr Ahmad after he moved into the Wells Road property, a multioccupancy house for adults requiring support. On May 24 last year he told support workers he wanted to be notorious and murder a member of the public, allegedly adding: “Kamil would be top of my list.”
Barry also wrote notes saying that he planned to kill people living in the house, including Mr Ahmad.
Barry will be sentenced on November 10.