The grandmother of a five-year-old boy who was stabbed to death at his home has pleaded guilty to his manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility. Warwick Crown Court was told Romanian national Elena Anghel, who was suffering delusions linked to paranoid schizophrenia, killed David-Mario Lazar, known to family members as Mario, at their house in Poplar Road, Earlsdon, Coventry, on January 25 last year.
The prosecution accepted the 51-year-old’s not guilty plea to a charge of murder and she is expected be sentenced by Mrs Justice Cockerill later on Tuesday. The judge was told Anghel, who was accompanied in the dock by four health workers and an interpreter, has an extensive history of treatment in Romania for psychotic and depressive disorders dating back to at least 2009.
In a victim impact statement read into the court record by prosecutor Peter Grieves-Smith, David-Mario’s mother said: “Mario was five years old when he died and he was killed by my mother. I still cannot believe this has happened. It is over a year ago now and nothing changes.”
