I watched on the news transfixed and filled with sadness as a man ran amok on the streets of London and eventually ending up beheading a helpless granny,Mrs Silva! Nicholas Salvador the man in question was then cleared at his murder trial on grounds of insanity.
Looking back at the whole episode now,one has to be truly insane to do what Nicholas Salvador did.I watched him as he attacked a car on the streets and smashed the window of
the car before the driver sped off! It just made me wonder,if that driver had immediately called the police at that moment what could have been avoided.  |
| Nicholas Salvador locked up in Psychiatric hospital over killing of Mrs Silva. |
Nicholas Salvador killed 82-year-old Palmira Silva in September last year.
The 25-year-old believed he was seeing demons and "ran amok" through back gardens in Edmonton, north London before the attack, the court heard.
He will be detained indefinitely in a psychiatric hospital.
Recorder of London Nicholas Hilliard QC told Salvador: "It is established beyond any doubt that you killed Mrs Silva in an attack of extraordinary brutality and ferocity.
"You thought you were encountering some demonic force which had taken on a human form. You could not have been more deluded.
"Nobody who saw it could forget the mild and trusting way Mrs Silva approached you over the wall while you were brandishing a knife."
He said Mrs Silva was a "gentle, intelligent" woman who deserved to live her life "in peace and with security, proud in the achievements of others".
We had seen Nicholas Salvador prowling through the neighbourhood like a hungry lion looking for its prey.We saw him kick into a door in frustration before he finally vaulted into Mrs Silva's garden and, after a brief exchange, stabbed her repeatedly before cutting her head off.God! That just sounds so awful..sounds like something from a horror film and this was indeed horrific.
Mrs Silva's granddaughter Christina Silva said: "You don't really know how to comprehend this happened, you still to this day think it is a big nightmare and you think you're going to wake up and everything will be fine."
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| 82 year old Palmira Silva who was beheaded by Nicholas Salvador. |
She added: "Every day I wake up and replay the attack on my grandmother in my head. Since the attack I have completely changed from the person I used to be.
"The thought of being alone in the house terrifies me."
Mrs Silva's daughter, Celestina Muis, said her mother's death had devastated the whole family who "no longer feel safe".
She said: "Palmira had a full life, loving her children, grandchildren and great grandchild. She was very much the glue that held us all together.
"Our lives have been torn apart knowing what happened to my mother."
Paranoid schizophrenia
Mrs Silva's family wiped away tears and hugged each other as the verdict was read out in court.
CCTV footage showed Nicholas Salvador killing two cats before targeting Mrs Silva. He lost his job three days before the incident, and smoked skunk cannabis, the court heard.
His trial heard two psychiatrists agreed he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.
When he carried out the killing, he believed Mrs Silva was a supernatural entity, either Adolf Hitler back from the dead or a demon who had taken the form of an old lady, jurors heard.
house in Nightingale Road when he went on the rampage.
Salvador was remanded in custody at Belmarsh prison but, due to his mental state, he was moved to high-security Broadmoor Hospital.
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Enfield Inspector Doug Skinner said the there were children playing in nearby gardens when Salvador was jumping over fences.
"We genuinely thought he would kill those children and we were filled with utter terror," he said.
In court, Salvador's barrister Bernard Richmond said he was regarded as a decent man, when he was not unwell.
He said: "Mental illness in whatever circumstances can be terrifying for the person and one of the things we have to bear in mind that, after this case is finished, he will have to continue, as his mental state improves, coming to terms with the horror of what he did when he was unwell."
One of Nicholas Salvador's friends speaking later said,it was hard to recognize the man that he had become.She described Salvador as a kind gentle giant and said it only highlights what a terrible disease mental illness is.