Former prisoner who stabbed 87-year-old man to death sentenced

A Hunger Games-obsessed ex-prisoner has been detained in hospital indefinitely for the "senseless" killing of an elderly mobility scooter rider five days after his release.

Lee Byer was psychotic when he stabbed 87-year-old Thomas O'Halloran in the neck and chest in Greenford, west London, in August 2022.

He later wrote repeatedly about a "Hunger Games" scenario in which he was required to meet "contestants" and then fight or attack, the Old Bailey was told.

Five days before the killing, Byer, who had a string of convictions, was released from Wormwood Scrubs, having served a full 12-year sentence for robbery.

Prosecutor Gareth Patterson KC told the court: "Technically, he was on bail when he was released in August 2022, so these offences were committed while on bail. Some months later that allegation was discontinued."

"From accounts from his mother and brother, there was odd behaviour but at that stage the full nature and degree of his mental illness had not been diagnosed."

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.

The pleas were accepted by the prosecution after mental health reports found Byer was psychotic, hearing voices, suffering from paranoid delusions and paranoid schizophrenia.

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