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Knifeman admits killing bus passenger
A “SMIRKING” knifeman who yesterday admitted stabbing to death a fellow bus passenger should be “locked up for good”, according to the victim’s childhood friend.
Anthony Joseph pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Richard Whelan, 28, on the top deck of the 43 bus at Holloway in July 2005.
But an Old Bailey jury failed to reach a verdict on a murder charge for the second time.
Joseph, of Theseus Walk, Islington, who will be sentenced on December 20, claimed he was suffering from a bout of paranoid schizophrenia when he lunged at Kentish Town ticket agent Mr Whelan with a knife after he was asked to stop throwing chips at the victim’s girlfriend.
Paul Forsythe, who has known Mr Whelan since childhood, said: “It’s disgraceful and typical of the British justice system. They need to lock these guys up for good otherwise they will come out and do it again.”
He added: “Richard was a guy who could have offered something to society. This guy couldn’t. Richard was a stand-up contributor, trying to make a living. He was a lovely bloke. The good are always taken.”
Following the verdict, Mr Whelan’s family said they were “very disappointed”.
In a statement they said: “The defence of diminished responsibility in this case has been used as a defence for the undefendable, with so much evidence showing that Anthony Joseph was an angry and vindictive man.
“He has tried to excuse his actions that evening by claiming mental illness. However, in our opinion he callously killed Richard for no reason at all.”
Mr Whelan suffered seven stab wounds in the attack – one through the heart – and was pronounced dead minutes later at Whittington Hospital in Archway.
While others left the bus in disgust when Joseph laughed as he mindlessly aimed greasy potato chips from a takeaway bag at them, Mr Whelan had the “bottle” to take action. “He was not prepared to sit there and do nothing about this behaviour after a chip fell into his girlfriend’s lap,” said Victor Temple, QC, prosecuting.
His girlfriend, Kerry Barker, 38, watched the horror unfold as she and Mr Whelan were on their way home.
Legal secretary Miss Barker and Mr Whelan had the tragic misfortune to cross the path of Joseph, who was high on a cocktail of drink and crack cocaine.
Nine men and three women on the jury watched CCTV footage of the killing. But after three days in retirement, they told Mr Justice Gross they still had not reached a verdict on the murder charge.
Only hours before the killing, Joseph had been released from prison in Manchester after serving five weeks on remand before being cleared of all charges. But it emerged yesterday that Joseph had been wrongly freed from prison as an arrest warrant relating to a burglary offence was outstanding. |
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