Killer thought he was Mandela and Jesus

A paranoid schizophrenic, who had suffered from delusions and hallucinations, plunged a knife into the heart of a teenager just three days after being released from a psychiatric unit.

Father of three Milton Downer stabbed 19-year-old Boris Reavey as the youngster was making his way to his bedsit flat.

In the weeks leading up to the killing Downer had been heard to say he was Nelson Mandela and Jesus. He was heard to say he was going to kill white people and that voices were telling him to kill Christians and Muslims.

His mental health problems were made worse by his use of skunk cannabis, cocaine and alcohol, and he was known to arm himself with knives and was no stranger to violence.

A court was told that four years before Mr Reavey's death in November 2008, a psychiatrist warned: "This combination of a personal habit of knife carrying, a sub culture of casual violence and weapon carrying, and underlying mental illness characterised by paranoia and impaired judgement, as well as frequent intoxication with alcohol and cannabis is, in my opinion, a potent recipe for disaster."

Judge Richard Foster, sitting at Luton Crown Court where Downer admitted the manslaughter of the teenager on the grounds of diminished responsibility, said: "How right that psychiatrist proved to be."

Judge Foster made his remarks as he ordered that Downer be sent to a secure mental health unit under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act.

Downer will remain under the care of medical staff at the unit in Essex and will not be released without the authorisation of the Secretary of State for Justice or a mental health tribunal.

Stuart Trimmer, prosecuting, said Downer's earlier plea of not guilty to the murder of Boris Reavey was acceptable to the crown.

Three days before the killing, Downer, 52, he had been discharged from Oakley Court Mental Health Unit in Bedford, where he had remained for two weeks following an incident where he had hurled a hi-fi and ironing board from his sixth floor flat onto cars in the street below.

On the night he was killed Mr Reavey passed a club called The Studio and was outside the entrance to a church in the street when he was attacked, without warning, by Downer.

The court heard that witnesses who saw what happened told how the youngster posed no threat to the older man. The palms of his hands were open in a non threatening gesture as Downer approached.

Mr Trimmer said one witness had seen Downer take the knife from his pocket.

"He saw Downer lunge forward towards the white male, his hand making contact with the left chest area."

The teenager managed to stagger back to the entrance to The Studio clutching his chest, which was "gushing with blood."

At the same time Downer was seen to wipe the knife with a hankerchief, before making off.

Boris Reavey was rushed by ambulance to Bedford South Wing Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11pm that night.

The cause of death was revealed as a single stab wound to his heart.

The court heard the next day, when visited by the community mental nurse, Downer commented on the fact that there had been a stabbing "outside the club" and laughed as he said: "They can't pin this down on me."

Days later police arrested Downer.

He denied being involved and was released on bail and arrested for a second time in January 2009.

Dealing with his antecedant history, the prosecutor said the defendant's mental health problems had started in early adulthood, with paranoid schizophrenia.

The court heard he had a poor insight into his condition.

His problems were complicated by his persistent use of illicit drugs and alcohol and he was spending £20 a week on skunk cannabis, as well as £50 a week on crack cocaine. He was also drinking tins of strong lager.

Mr Trimmer said Downer had been held in psychiatric units on some 15 occasions.

It was following one such incarceration in 2004 that had prompted a psychiatrist to make what turned out to be his profetic assessment of Downer and the risk he posed.

John Price, QC, defending said: "He has asked me to express his genuine sorrow, and I do so."

He said the violence carried out that night "was an expression not of wickedness but of the illness."

Passing sentence, Judge Foster said his heart went out to the parents of Boris Reavey, who have been left devastated by his death.

He said he had read a letter from Boris' mother which said Downer should never have been walking the streets of Bedford that night her son died.

The judge said: "I am bound to say I have suitable sympathy for her comments."

Judge Foster said after his arrest in November last year Downer had shown no remorse for what he had done and had lied.

The judge ordered Downer to be detained under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act and he said he was also making a restriction order under Section 41 under the same Act, which means he will not be released back into the community without the approval of the Secretary of State for Justice or a mental health tribunal.