Former prisoner who killed 87-year-old man on mobility scooter detained indefinitely

A former prisoner who murdered an elderly man on his mobility scooter has been locked up indefinitely.

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.

Byer had a string of previous convictions, and had only been released from prison just five days before to the "senseless" killing.

He was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order at the Old Bailey on Friday.

The court heard Byer believed himself to be part of a Hunger Games scenario, in which he needed to defend himself.

The 45-year-old pleaded guilty last month to manslaughter by diminished responsibility and having an offensive weapon.

Prosecutor Gareth Patterson KC accepted the pleas after mental health reports found Byer was psychotic, hearing voices, suffering from paranoid delusions and paranoid schizophrenia.

He said the defendant’s mental state provided an explanation for what was a “motiveless attack”.

Before handing down Byer's hospital order, the judge told the court of the defendant's 15 previous convictions, with offences ranging from robbery to possession of a prohibited firearm.

Mr O'Halloran was a grandfather originally from Co Clare in Ireland, and had been well known in the local community.

He was a passionate musician, and social media footage shows him busking to raise money for Ukraine in the months before the killing.

A group of children tried to help the Mr O'Halloran, but he could not be saved.