Jeffrey Barry found guilty of murdering refugee after calling him rapist and terrorist
Killer was released from secure psychiatric ward hours before launching knife attack
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A man has been found guilty of murdering a Kurdish refugee after accusing him of being a rapist and terrorist.
Jeffrey Barry, a paranoid schizophrenic, had been released from a secure psychiatric unit hours before he stabbed Kamil Ahmad to death in Bristol in July 2016.
The court heard that the sustained knife attack ended with Barry slicing off his victim’s penis, leaving his mutilated body in a bedroom.
The 56-year-old admitted killing Mr Ahmad, but only pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.
But after a two-week trial at Bristol Crown Court, a jury concluded he deliberately targeted his 48-year-old neighbour and was of sound mind at the time of the incident.
Ms Justice May told the jury Barry’s mental illness “wasn’t one that was enough to reduce the offence in this case but it exists all the same”, adding: “It is a chronic, enduring mental illness that requires treatment.”
The jury heard that Barry had previously assaulted his neighbour and made racist remarks, telling police he believed he was a rapist, paedophile and terrorist in a phone call weeks before the murder.
On 24 May last year, he told support workers he wanted to be notorious and murder a member of the public, adding: ”Kamil would be top of my list.“
In a phone call to police the following day, Barry told an operator: ”He has raped a vulnerable person.
“He has committed two acts of theft and he has broken a television. He is a paedophile and a terrorist in Iraq.”
He also wrote notes saying that he planned to kill people living in his shared accommodation, including Mr Ahmad.
Barry relapsed after he stopped taking the drug clozapine in November 2015, due to it compromising his immune system, and was known to be drinking heavily, smoking skunk cannabis and behaving in a sexually inappropriate manner.
On 13 June, he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act after being filmed on CCTV performing a sex act while wearing only a police hat.
He was taken to Callington Road Hospital in Bristol before being transferred to the Cygnet Hospital Kewstoke in Weston-super-Mare.
The court heard Barry he was discharged the day before he attacked Mr Ahmad, after a mental health tribunal ruled he was well enough to be released and made him promise not to drink or take drugs.
Dr Roger Thomas, a consultant forensic psychiatrist, told the jury the tribunal was unaware of how long Barry had been off clozapine, his relapse, or concerns raised by staff at the Milestones Trust, which manages the Wells Road property.
They had reported that Barry was becomingly increasingly obsessed with Mr Ahmad and was being sexually inappropriate but he left the hospital on 6 July without a care plan in place.
Staff at the Milestones Trust, who only informed of the decision hours before his return, attempted to obtain an injunction to protect Mr Ahmad but it did not come through in time.
On the day he was freed, Barry spent more than four hours drinking in local bars before returning to his flat in Wells Road shortly before midnight.
Police said he had consumed at least a litre of rum by 2am, when he climbed the stairs to the second floor and knocked on Mr Ahmad’s door.
He murdered Mr Ahmad in a “savage and sustained” knife attack that included 25 wounds to his face and eyes.
In a recording played to the court, Barry was heard telling the police: “I just killed Kamil”.
“I need to be arrested, I’ve got injuries to myself as well,” he added while breathing heavily, before confirming his full name and postcode.
“I warned him, I warned the crisis team ... they ignored me. He’s dead now.”
The same call saw Barry make continued unfounded allegations against Mr Kamil and state his intention to claim diminished responsibility.
Prosecutors described the attack as “racially motivated and unprovoked”, saying Mr Ahmed was stabbed more than 40 times and that his body had been mutilated.
The Kurdish refugee was originally from Iran and had lived for around two years at the shared property, which provides residential care and support.
John Penny, from the CPS, said jurors disregarded grounds for Barry’s diminished responsibility over the “horrendous” attack, adding: “They made that decision on the basis of expert psychiatric advice along with the Crown’s evidence of Barry’s long-standing animosity towards Mr Ahmed, which was based in large part on Barry’s racist views.”
Detective Chief Inspector Richard Ocone, of Avon and Somerset Police, said: “Jeffrey Barry may have a history of serious mental illness but at the time he attacked Kamil he knew exactly what he was doing.
“He deliberately armed himself with a knife and purposefully went to Kamil’s flat and brutally attacked him.
“It is clear in the 999 call he subsequently made that he was already thinking of his defence and the jury rightly recognised he was fully responsible for his actions.
“The public are now much safer with him off the streets for he is an exceptionally dangerous man.
“Kamil’s family have been extremely dignified throughout the duration of this case and I’d particularly like to praise them for the way they have dealt with the harrowing evidence shown in court.”
A spokesperson for Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust extended its condolences to Mr Ahmad’s family and friends after his “tragic and brutal death”.
“We remain committed to close cooperation with all agencies in an effort to prevent such an event happening in the future,” he added.
“We have reviewed and strengthened our ways of working with other service providers, including the police, to improve our sharing of clinical and additional relevant information.”
John Hoskinson, chief executive of the Milestones Trust, said an internal review was being conducted into the case alongside NHS England and the Bristol Safeguarding Adults Board.
“We do understand this is a very difficult time for those involved but are unable to comment further until the results of these investigations are known,” Mr Hoskinson added.
A Safeguarding Adults Review has been commissioned to examine the circumstances of Mr Ahmad’s death.
Barry is being held at the high-security Broadmoor Hospital and will be sentenced in due course.
Additional reporting by PA