A paranoid schizophrenic who butchered a neighbour and hacked off his penis a day after release from a secure psychiatric facility was found guilty of murder yesterday.
Jeffrey Barry, 56, stabbed Kurdish refugee Kamil Ahmed 25 times in a “savage and sustained” killing at a supported property for people with mental illnesses.
He stabbed him in the eyes and cut off his penis after he died in an “act of mutilation”.
CCTV showed drunk Barry emerging from his flat with a knife in his pocket and knocking on Mr Ahmed’s door upstairs.
His victim opened the door and Barry went in before emerging 42 minutes later with blood visible all over his clothes.
He then walked back down to the hall, and dialled 999 and told the operator he had killed Mr Ahmed.
Weeks before the killing Barry told police in a phone call he thought Mr Ahmad was a rapist, a paedophile and a terrorist in Iraq.
He earlier told a psychiatrist he could hear the devil’s voice telling him: “Kamil must die, he is a very bad man.”
Barry was arrested and sectioned a month before the killing after displaying “bizarre”, over-sexualised behaviour, including masturbating naked in communal areas.
But he was discharged – despite talking about killing Mr Ahmed – the day before the brutal knifing in Bristol on July 7, 2016.
Barry denied murder and admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility, but went on trial at Bristol Crown Court. A jury found him guilty yesterday (Tues).
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Roger Thomas told the court: “The Mental Health Tribunal is a court of law.
“My clinical view is he should not have been discharged by the Mental Health Tribunal.”
Barry and his victim were living in supported-living flats for people with mental health illnesses in the Knowle area of Bristol run by Milestones Trust.
CCTV footage on the night of the murder showed Barry leaving the flat in the early evening on July 6, 2016.
He spent several hours drinking at Charlie’s Bar in Wells Road and Long Bar in Old Market before returning to the flat just before midnight.
Footage captured him leaving the flat at 1am, wearing just his pants, and making a telephone call in the hallway.
He ended the call at 1.26am, and next appeared on CCTV footage three minutes later, emerging from his flat shirtless but wearing trousers with a knife in his pocket.
Having knocked on Mr Ahmed’s door, he then knocked on another housemate’s door, before knocking again at Mr Ahmed’s.
After the attack he walked back down to the hall, and at 2.15am dialled 999 and told the operator he had killed Mr Ahmed.
Pathologist Amanda Jeffrey said Mr Ahmed had suffered as many as 25 stab wounds to his body and facial area including his eyes.
But she concluded he had died from three fatal stab wounds, one to his stomach, upper arm and left wrist.
Mr Ahmed’s penis was also found to have been cut off after he had died in an “act of mutilation”.
Altercations between the two men had been documented by police and mental health services for years before the killing.
In December 2013 Mr Ahmed reported being assaulted by Barry and later told police he was scared of him.
Barry rang the police six weeks before the killing and reported that Mr Ahmed had raped a vulnerable person, was a paedophile and a terrorist in Iran.
He is reported to have been drinking heavily and smoking cannabis and in the days before had been admitted to a secure psychiatric facility after masturbating in public.
Consultant forensic psychiatrists called by the prosecution and defence disputed whether Barry was suffering from diminished responsibility due to his mental health at the time.
Trial judge The Honourable Mrs Justice May DBE will pass sentence in a few weeks’ time.