Jurors have been shown footage of the chaotic events surrounding the murder of an 82-year-old woman by a man armed with wooden pole and a machete.
Palmira Silva, 82, was in her back garden when she was attacked by Nicholas Salvador, 25, who was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, the Old Bailey was told. She was stabbed and then decapitated.
A jury of six women and six men were shown footage captured by a police helicopter of Salvador armed, topless and leaping over garden fences near Silva’s home. They were spared images of the killing and its aftermath.
Jonathan Rees QC, prosecuting, told the jury there was no dispute that Salvador – who has been charged with murder – killed Silva, an Italian-born widow who ran a cafe, at her home on 4 September last year.
Rees said this was a “type of trial not often found in our criminal courts”. The defendant is charged with murder and accepts he killed Silva but has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. “In other words he claims that he was insane in the legal sense at the time of the killing,” Rees said.
The claim is supported by two distinguished psychiatrists, Rees said. However, the law says the prosecution cannot agree to a such a plea, it can only be returned by a jury that has heard evidence from at least two registered medical practitioners. Rees said: “There’s no dispute in this case between the prosecution and the defence as to the appropriate verdict – not guilty by reason of insanity.”
Commentary from officers attending the incident was played to the jury over the footage filmed from the police helicopter, which shows Salvador pacing around back gardens.
“He’s armed with what looks like a knife and a small pole,” one officer says. “Looks like he has killed a dog or something in the back garden.”
Salvador killed two cats and broke into a neighbour’s house before he was finally arrested during a struggle with police during which he was Tasered six times, the court heard.
Salvador was living three doors away from Silva in Nightingale Road, Edmonton, north London, with his best friend’s family at the time of the killing.
After Salvador had attacked Silva, the officers in the helicopter urge their colleagues to evacuate neighbouring properties.
“Any units down on Nightingale Road, get to as many premises as you can and get people away from this location,” an officer says. “He has decapitated a woman,” the commentary continues. “He is agitated and lethal. He needs taking out.”
Salvador armed himself from the house in which he was staying and went on to kill two of his hosts’ cats as he believed them to be “demons”, the court heard.
He made his way through back gardens and then smashed his way into another house and attacked a car containing two members of the family he was living with.
Next, he went back through the house and into an alleyway that ran alongside Silva’s home, jurors were told.
The victim, who had two children, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild, had wandered into her back garden and approached Salvador who leapt over a wall into her garden and attacked her.
The court heard that Silva would have died from multiple stab wounds and would not have been alive at the point of decapitation. Afterwards, the defendant ran through gardens at the back of the terraced houses, tearing down fences, while police tried to evacuate nearby residents.
He was finally arrested by armed officers in the front room of another house in Nightingale Road “after a violent and chaotic struggle”, Rees said.
Rees said that psychiatrists for both the prosecution and defence would offer evidence that he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. He has been receiving treatment at Broadmoor hospital, the court heard.
The court heard Salvador had held various jobs after completing a media studies course at college, including fitness instructor and pasting adverts on billboards.
Friends of Salvador told police officers he regularly smoked skunk cannabis, sniffed cocaine and had been known to drink whole bottles of spirits, such as brandy and whisky, each day.
If the jury is sure Salvador killed Silva and it is more likely than not that he was legally insane, they will be directed to return a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity, Rees told the jurors. Rees said that if such a verdict was returned it would not mean Salvador would “walk from court”.
“He is currently in Broadmoor high security hospital. That’s where he is going to be at the end of this process.”
The trial is expected to conclude on Tuesday.