Schizophrenic gran who killed five-year-old boy sentenced to indefinite hospital order

The grandmother of a five-year-old boy who was stabbed to death at his home has been sentenced to an indefinite hospital order after admitting his manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.

Romanian national Elena Anghel, who was suffering delusions linked to paranoid schizophrenia, killed David-Mario Lazar, known to his family as Mario, at their house in Poplar Road, Earlsdon, Coventry on January 25 last year. The court was told the schoolboy suffered 29 areas of sharp force injuries after Anghel “lost contact with reality” due to an acute and sudden deterioration in her mental health.

Passing sentence on the 51-year-old at Warwick Crown Court, High Court judge Mrs Justice Cockerill described the case as “truly tragic”. The judge told Anghel: “The sad truth is that when you killed Mario you were exceedingly mentally unwell. Your delusions were all-encompassing. You had in effect lost contact with reality."

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She added: “You were convinced that your grandson was in such danger of terrible suffering that it would be better to kill him and that is what you did. I am sure you would never have hurt, much less killed, Mario had you not been very ill.”

The court was told Anghel, who was accompanied in the dock by four health workers and an interpreter, has an extensive history of treatment in Romania for psychotic and depressive disorders dating back to at least 2009, including eight stays in psychiatric units.

Imposing a hospital order “without limit of time” on Anghel, the judge said: “You have expressed profound remorse… so much so that you have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. That course (a hospital order) is