Man admits killing 87 year-old busker on mobility scooter five days after being released from prison
Thomas O’Halloran was stabbed repeatedly in the neck, chest and abdomen by Lee Byer, who has now admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility
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A knifeman who repeatedly stabbed an 87-year-old on a mobility scooter in a random attack has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Thomas O’Halloran rode his scooter 75 yards down the road after he was stabbed, trying to flag down members of the public for help in Greenford, west London, before collapsing of his wounds.
His attacker Lee Byer had launched the unprovoked assault outside Runnymede Gardens on 16 August 2022, with a post-mortem examination discovering multiple stab injuries to his neck, chest and abdomen.
It can now be reported that Byer had a string of previous convictions, and had only been released from Wormwood Scrubs five days before carrying out the attack.
Byer was arrested after the Met Police launched a manhunt, with CCTV released of him running from the scene while carrying a large blade.
On Monday, the 45-year-old, of no fixed address, denied murder but pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of 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”.
Shortly after 4pm, police received a 999 call from a member of the public who found the victim on his scooter coming from a passageway that runs between Runneymede Gardens and Welland Gardens.
Mr O’Halloran was able to tell the passer-by that he had been stabbed, although wounds to his body were clearly visible, the Old Bailey has previously heard.
The police arrived within minutes and Mr O’Halloran had collapsed and was being helped by members of the public.
Police and medics took over first aid but he was pronounced dead at the scene at 4.54pm.
Mr O’Halloran and the defendant were caught on CCTV heading towards the passageway where their paths crossed. The footage showed that, apart from Byer, no-one else went into or out of the area when the victim was attacked.
When he left the passageway, a knife could be seen in Byer’s hand. He was then caught on camera depositing a knife handle in a drain in Haymill Close on the way back to his mother’s house.
Forensic analysis found the victim’s blood on the handle, although the blade was never found, with Byer identified by people working in the criminal justice system after his images were released in the media.
After being arrested at his mother’s house on 18 August, Byer told police: “Murder, I was in prison at the time.”
In police interviews, he denied being the suspect caught on CCTV, claiming he was in his mother’s garden or the park at the time.
It can now be reported that Byer had 15 previous convictions recorded against him for 30 offences dating back to when he was 14. In 2011, he was convicted of robbery and was sentenced to 12 years in prison and was only released from Wormwood Scrubs on 11 August.
The death of Mr O’Halloran, a grandfather said to be well-known in the local community, triggered an outpouring of grief and outrage in the UK and Ireland.
In the months leading up to his death, Mr O’Halloran had been busking with his accordion outside a Tesco and a train station in west London to raise money for the war in Ukraine.
He was known for being a passionate musician and was described as “very popular” in both Greenford and his native Co Clare in the west of Ireland.
His younger brother George previously told The Daily Mail: ‘Tommy was a kind and gentle man.
“He was a very kind person who would get along with anybody. This was a terrible thing to have happened.’
Mr O’Halloran had left Ireland as a teenager in the 1950s and emigrated to the UK along with eight siblings in search of better opportunities, but had returned annually to his home village of Ennistymon.
His nephew, Thomas O’Halloran Jnr, told Irish broadcaster RTE: “At that stage in somebody’s life, to reach 87 is a feat in itself, but to be tragically taken away from his direct family and his extended family here in Ireland, it’s senseless. Absolutely senseless.
“The violence, seemingly for no particular reason, which has completely shocked all of us. It’s numbing, it’s unbearable to think about.”
Old Bailey Judge Mark Lucraft adjourned sentencing until May 10, saying: “The issue for me will be to consider the degree of responsibility retained at the time and to work out the appropriate sentence.”