Man who stabbed his mother to death then set fire to her flat is sent to hospital indefinitely

A man who stabbed his mother to death then set fire to her flat has been sent to hospital indefinitely.

44-year-old Peter Holboll denied murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter and arson over the fatal attack in May in Kentish Town in north London.

Holboll suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and the judge at the Old Bailey said there was a real risk that the public "would suffer harm" if he were not detained.

Judge Brian Barker QC was told that Peter Holboll himself, and his mother, had urged mental health services to find him a bed in the days before the killing. There were none available.

Four adults and one child in separate properties in the building were rescued by the London Fire Brigade after Holboll set fire to his mother's ground floor flat in Lawford Road, after killing her, in the early hours of May 9.

Holboll fled the scene but gave himself up at Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead.

Prosecuting, Edward Brown QC added:

• Holboll lived in his own home in central London but went to stay with his mother when he felt unwell

• She managed his care for many years, and at times expressed disapproval of him taking medication, preferring he be treated through homeopathy, and believing he suffered from autism or Asperger's syndrome

• He had been involved with mental health services since 1994 and was sectioned 10 times, though there were improvements after 2003 before he had a relapse in 2013