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Street axe killer has his sentence delayed

A PARANOID axe killer who nearly decapitated his victim in an attack in a Swiss Cottage street has been told he will have to wait until the end of the month to learn his fate.
Recorder of London Judge Peter Beaumont was due to sentence the attacker this week.
But final psychiatric reports and an available bed at Broadmoor maximum security hospital are still awaited.
The Old Bailey heard that Joseph Sheehan, a 38-year-old West End restaurant worker, will now be sentenced on November 28.
Sheehan, of Belmont Street, Chalk Farm, pleaded guilty in August to the manslaughter of Brian Messitt, 67, of Haverstock Hill, Belsize Park.
The prosecution accepted that paranoid schizophrenic Sheehan was suffering from diminished responsibility. A murder charge which he had faced was dropped.
Sheehan attacked Mr Messitt in Eton Avenue on March 14. He waited at the scene to be arrested.
A detective said: “Despite exhaustive inquiries we have failed to establish any link between the pair.”
Sheehan and Mr Messitt, a writer and world traveller, lived not far from each other and used the same public houses.
Prosecutor Richard Whittam said Sheehan, who had “delusions of persecution and grandiose ideas”, launched the ferocious attack after buying an axe and stalking Mr Messitt.
He added: “One witness saw him creeping in a manner which looked as if they were actors in a pantomime. At the time a number of people were going about their daily business and there was nothing to suggest that Brian Messitt had done anything immediately before the attack and at any time to provoke Sheehan.”
Chillingly “there was no sign of urgency, frenzy or hurry” in the way Sheehan went about the killing, said Mr Whittam.
Asked at the scene why he did it Sheehan casually replied: “I’ve known him for 20 years. It’s complicated.”



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