A teenager who “zigzagged” through Russell Square in central London stabbing random strangers has admitted killing an American tourist and injuring five others.



Zakaria Bulhan, 19, killed Darlene Horton, 64, a retired special needs teacher, and injured other holidaymakers and theatregoers on the evening of 3 August last year, the Old Bailey heard on Monday.

Police were at the scene within six minutes as initial fears were of a terrorist attack in a square near to where one of the devices in the 7/7 bombings was detonated. But Bulhan, who has no previous convictions, was found to have been experiencing a psychotic episode.

He denied murder but admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility. He pleaded not guilty to five counts of attempted murder, but admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm to Martin Hoenisch, Lillie Sellentin, David Imber, Bernard Hepplewhite and Yovel Lewkowski.



The pleas were accepted by the prosecution. The court heard that Bulhan was having an acute episode of paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the attacks.

Mark Heywood QC, prosecuting, said the case had been considered at the highest level and it was decided it was right to accept the pleas.



Mr Justice Spencer ordered attempted murder charges to lie on file.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Darlene Horton had been due to fly back to the US with her husband hours after the incident on 3 August 2016. Photograph: Metropolitan police/PA

The court heard that at 10.30pm on 3 August Bulhan was seen “moving in an erratic fashion” along the pavement and armed with a large kitchen knife.



Heywood said Sellentin, 23, from Australia, saw an individual “smiling and skipping” along the road and watched as he skipped towards an older couple in front of her – Hepplewhite 65, from London, and a Canadian friend he had been visiting the theatre with.



Bulhan appeared to have something in his clenched fist and seemed to skip and wave his arms in a swaying motion. He swerved towards Hepplewhite who shouted: “Ouch.”



Heywood said Bulhan skipped on towards Sellentin, who had also been visiting the theatre. She tried to move out of his way but he jumped towards her and she thought she had been punched in her ribcage.



Someone shouted: “He’s got a knife,” and Hepplewhite and Sellentin looked down to see blood and realised they had been stabbed, the judge heard.

Horton was walking with her husband, Richard Wagner, the court was told, when he became aware of a commotion and suddenly a black male rushed past them and his wife said: “Ouch.” Wagner, a professor, shouted a warning to others and chased Bulhan.



The couple had been to a restaurant on their last night in London before they were due to fly back to the US.

Hoenisch, 59, also an American, who had arrived in London with his wife on holiday that day, saw Bulhan running at them and raised his right arm to protect himself, then felt a sharp pain in his side as he was stabbed below his armpit.

Imber, 40, an Australian on holiday, was stabbed in his ribcage, and described Bulhan as having a “crazed smile”. Lewkowski, 18, who was visiting from Israel and was with her grandfather, felt a pain as Bulhan appeared to bump into her, the court heard.

One witness said he saw the man inserting the knife into Horton’s back “up to the hilt” and shouting angrily in foreign language. Horton was pronounced dead at scene.



Bulhan was Tasered and then arrested by armed police. One officer said he could hear him muttering “Allah, Allah, Allah”, while others found a pamphlet entitled “Fortress of the Muslim” in the pocket of his tracksuit trousers. The judge was told that these two details were not considered relevant to the attack.

In police interviews Bulhan said he did not know why he had committed the offences.



Five of the victims sustained non-fatal injuries and had made good recoveries. However, Horton received a stab wound to the back that penetrated her left lung and heart, sustaining “a devastating injury from which she died at the scene”, said Heywood.



Bulhan, who was born in Norway after his parents emigrated from Somalia, is the second of three children. He was living in Tooting, south London, with his mother, siblings and stepfather at the time of the attacks.

He dropped out of college in April 2016 and “began to behave in an odd fashion”, the court heard. After a number of consultations with his GP, he was referred to a community mental health team. He was being treated for low mood and anxiety, the court heard. His mother was so concerned about his rising aggression she removed knives from the kitchen.

Bulhan, held at Broadmoor hospital since his arrest, had been experiencing auditory hallucinations and paranoid delusions. He believed he was being followed and the devil had told him to kill, the court heard.



He said he had been hearing “cunning and manipulative” voices before the attacks, and believed magic spells were put on him when people spat in his direction, one psychiatrist reported. Another psychiatrist diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia. Of the stabbings Bulhan told one psychiatrist: “I can’t remember and I don’t want to.”

Bulhan, who is to be sentenced on Tuesday, faces imprisonment or a hospital order. John Jones QC, defending, said the teenager had experienced mental illness since 15 and that had “reached a crescendo” in August last year.

Arguing that Bulhan and the public would be better served if a hospital order was granted, Jones added that although Bulhan had no recollection of the stabbings, he had “an appreciation of the harm caused” and expressed “remorse, and complete regret and profound sorrow” for what he had done.

Horton’s widower said in a victim impact statement: “Losing Darlene, my wife and best friend, under these circumstances is as bad as you might imagine it to be, if not worse. As bad as I feel for my loss, I feel worse for the loss experienced by my two daughters.”

The family had suffered an unspeakable tragedy because of “potentially unknowable deficiencies in our system of identifying and treating individuals with mental illness”, he added. “As a result, a potential killer was allowed to walk the streets.”

After Bulhan’s guilty pleas, DI Tony Lyons, of the Metropolitan police’s homicide and major crime command, said: “Bulhan’s actions caused an enormous amount of fear and distress with initial concerns this incident may be linked to terrorism. This was quickly found out not to be the case and we now know Bulhan was suffering a severe episode of mental illness. He clearly poses an enormous risk to the general public and I hope he can now get the help he needs.”



The officer said thoughts must remain “with Bulhan’s victims who were simply enjoying a night out on a summer’s evening when they were subjected to this terrifying ordeal. And, of course, the friends and family of Darlene Horton who so sadly lost her life.”

The hearing continues.