2nd LD Writethru: Man admits killing American tourist in last year knife attack in Britain
Xinhua, February 6, 2017 Adjust font size:
A 19-year old man told a British court on Monday that he had killed a U.S. tourist and injured five others during a knife attack last year in London.
The man, whose name was given as Zakaria Bulhan from south-west London, carried out the attack in London's Russell Square on Aug. 3 last year.
Local media said Bulhan pleaded guilty at the London-based Central Criminal Court of England and Wales to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and wounding.
Diminished responsibility refers to an unbalanced mental state which is considered to make a person less answerable for murder, being recognized as grounds to reduce the charge to that of manslaughter.
Bulhan had been charged with murder and attempted murder but the court accepted his plea.
He reportedly told the court that he was suffering an acute episode of paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the attacks.
The victim was Darlene Horton, 64, a retired teacher who was visiting London with her husband. She was a mother of two.
The attack came amid surging hate crime after Brexit vote last June, attracting wide media attention. Endit