A woman with severe mental illness who decapitated her brother has been detained in hospital indefinitely.

Heaven Belal, 41, attacked her brother Omar Bilal with a knife in her council flat in Stanley Road, Edmonton on July 27, 2021.

The Old Bailey was told that in February of that year, Belal had moved to London from Plymouth to be near her older sibling.

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On the afternoon of the day of the attack, police were called to Belal’s flat by concerned social workers after a neighbour heard screams and shouts.

The court heard that the defendant had called 999 herself, saying: “It’s me, Samoeel, the Lord,” in an apparent reference to an Old Testament prophet.

Officers forced their way into the property and found a man’s body, clothed only in pants and socks, lying at the top of stairs.

Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC said: “His upper half had been covered over with bin bags. It immediately seemed as if he was dead.

“That was confirmed when an officer removed the bin bags and discovered that the man’s head had been severed from his body and was missing.”

The victim had also sustained multiple stab wounds to the chest, the prosecutor said.

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Officers then discovered the decapitated head inside a plastic carrier bag in a bedroom wardrobe.

The defendant, who appeared calm but wore heavily bloodstained trousers and shoes, was arrested on suspicion of murder.

Inside a locked suitcase, officers found a large kitchen knife that had been wiped clean.

Mr Emlyn Jones said there was no dispute that the defendant killed 46-year-old Mr Bilal and removed his head with a knife.

He said: “The awful tragedy of this is that the defendant was in the grip of a very serious mental illness. Everyone involved in this case agrees that the killing is explained by her illness.”

He added that psychiatrists agreed Belal was suffering from delusions and was unaware that what she was doing was wrong.

Jurors deliberated for less than a day to find Belal not guilty of murder “by reason of insanity”.

Judge Anthony Leonard handed her a hospital order without limit of time.

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