Dementia sufferer who killed long-term neighbour in the street after having paranoid thoughts is jailed
Retired Transport for London worker Derrick Brown killed fellow pensioner Richard Brathwaite in March 2024
A Dementia-sufferer who stabbed to death his long-term neighbour after experiencing delusional thoughts about those living in his street has been jailed.
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Retired Transport for London (TfL) worker Derrick Brown, 74, killed Richard Brathwaite, 72, outside their homes in Wembley, north London, in March 2024.
The neighbours, who had lived next door to one another for more than 35 years, were once amicable but "frictions" had emerged following a dispute over a shared alleyway, a court heard.
Prosecutors said that at the time of the incident, Brown was suffering with undiagnosed dementia which had impaired his ability to form a rational judgment and exercise self-control.
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Brown pleaded guilty to manslaughter at Harrow Crown Court on Monday and has been handed an extended sentence comprising five years and four months’ imprisonment and five years on licence.
Prosecutor Julian Christopher KC told the court that on the day of the incident, Mr Brathwaite was carrying out work on his car when Brown approached him and asked when he was going to "move the timber".
It was heard that issues over an alleyway between the neighbours’ houses had caused "friction" in the past, and it is thought the comment referred to this.
Afterwards, Brown went back to his house to pick up a kitchen knife which he had hidden under a recycling container in the weeks before over fears that neighbours in his street might try to harm him.
The court heard that Brown then ran after his neighbour with the weapon and chased him into a garden.
Mr Brathwaite’s wife Annetta heard shouting and ran over to where her husband was and found him lying on the ground with blood on his shirt, it was heard.
She ran back to call for help but was then "intercepted" by Brown, who held her against a parked car and punched her in the face.
The woman managed to push him away and run inside her house to call the police.
Another neighbour had come out into the street having heard the commotion and asked Brown what he was shouting about.
Appearing angry, Brown responded and said words to the effect of: "I’ve had enough, they’re not listening, they need to move their things".
The neighbour asked what he was doing with the knife, to which Brown responded: "I’m going to kill them."
When emergency services arrived, Mr Brathwaite was found lying in the doorway to a house, bleeding from a stab wound to his chest which had penetrated his heart. He died at the scene.
Mrs Brathwaite sustained a laceration to her top lip and a cut to the left of her forehead.
She later told the police that Brown had been acting "strangely" for some time and was constantly saying that Mr Brathwaite was trying to steal his house.
The elderly defendant previously pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Brathwaite, unlawful wounding of Mrs Brathwaite and having an article with a blade or point.
His plea of manslaughter was accepted on the basis that his "ability to form a rational judgment and exercise self-control was substantially impaired by the dementia and persecutory delusions from which he was suffering at the time".
Nina Grahame KC, mitigating, referred to the "robust" diagnosis of dementia given by medical professionals.
Ms Grahame added: "That diagnosed dementia is, we submit, the only explanation for how this elderly man of previous good character, with no history of aggression or violence, committed these acts."
She also referred to his career of three-and-a-half decades with TfL, adding: "He is, through his life, a hardworking and loving husband and friend."
Sentencing him, Judge Anupama Thompson said: “"t is clear that Mr Brathwaite was a gentle, generous, hardworking man, devoted to his family.
"His family are struggling to comprehend his loss, a loss exacerbated by the fact he was killed in front of his home of so many years."