A man suffering from schizophrenia has been detained indefinitely at a high security hospital after he admitted stabbing a pensioner with a bread knife.
Cardiff Crown Court was told that Martin Davies, 23, stabbed 66-year-old Gwen Poole near her home in Llanbradach after he heard “voices in his head”.
Davies, of New Tredegar, admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Mr Justice Griffith Williams said: “This was, in any view, a terrible crime, a senseless killing.
“You knew it was wrong to kill someone but it was the voices that told you to do so. It was the voices that sent you out looking for someone to kill.”
An inquiry is now expected to be set up to establish how Davies was allowed in the community. He had been released from hospital four months earlier and was checked by a community care team on the day of the killing.
Mrs Poole had been waiting for a lift to a skittles match when Davies attacked her on Tuesday March 24 last year. She died later in hospital.
In a statement to the court, Mrs Poole’s son Ian said: “I can’t believe she is not coming back. I ask myself: ‘How can mum walk down the road to get a lift to play skittles and then get attacked in the street?’.”
Det Ch Supt Adrian Erasmus, who led the investigation by Gwent Police, said: “Gwen was killed by a complete stranger with no apparent motive.
“Her family must live with the fact she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and her death can never be explained.”