SerpApi.Org
A Somali asylum seeker who had stopped taking his medication stabbed a pensioner to death on Remembrance Sunday.
Musse Ali, 67, killed Hilkiah McLeggan, 77, and wounded Ho Yau and Baheru Bartura at East Street market in Walworth, south London, on Nov 10, 2024.
Ali, who moved to the UK in 1990 after seeking political asylum, has schizoaffective disorder.
He was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order at the Old Bailey on Wednesday after admitting manslaughter by diminished responsibility, wounding with intent and having a bladed article.
Judge Nigel Lickley KC said: “This case concerns the tragic events on Nov 10, 2024, when three members of the public were attacked by the defendant, Mr Ali, who had armed himself with a large kitchen knife.
“Mr Ali was mentally very unwell at the time, with his long-standing illness the main driver of his horrific offending that day when he stabbed and killed Hilkiah McLeggan, and seriously injured Ho Yau and Baheru Bartura.
“A life was lost and many lives changed as a consequence.”
The judge said Ali’s offending caused “serious alarm and distress”, and that there was “no doubt” he remained a “dangerous” individual.
The court heard that after arriving at the market by bus on the day of the attack, Ali entered a shop and stole a knife.
The shopkeeper initially thought Ali was stealing vapes and, after pushing him out of the building, realised he was holding a blade.
Once outside, Ali randomly stabbed three people in “quick succession”.
His first victim, Mr Yau, had been walking through the market when Ali “ran at him” and “stabbed him a number of times”.
In a witness statement, he said Ali looked “crazy” and that his eyes were “wide and scary”.
The court heard that after stabbing Mr Yau, Ali attacked Mr Bartura and Mr McLeggan with the blade, which was 20 to 25cm in length.
He also “lunged” at other members of the public with the weapon before he was eventually disarmed.
Mr McLeggan died at the scene from a stab wound to the back.
The court was told that Mr Bartura has needed extensive medical treatment since the attack, which left him with a deep penetrative wound to his chest.
In a victim impact statement, he said that without the support of his family, he would be housebound because of his “overwhelming anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and a constant fear of being attacked again”.
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The clinician responsible for Ali told the court that the defendant, who was sleeping rough, has a “serious and treatment-resistant” form of the schizoaffective disorder.
He said that in his view the attack would not have taken place if Ali had not been ill.
In a tribute to Mr McLeggan, his grieving relatives said that their lives had been turned upside down on the day of the attack.
They said Ali “stole a precious, courageous, supportive and loving person when he carried out this atrocious and selfish act”.
“Our dad was not ready to go, nor were we prepared to lose him in such a cruel way,” they added.
