LONDON (Reuters) - An arsonist who killed two men in a firebomb attack on a shop was ordered to be held indefinitely in a secure hospital after he pleaded guilty in court on Friday.
Unemployed Robert Torto, 33, from south London, hurled a petrol bomb into a convenience store in April 2006, the Old Bailey heard.
Shopkeeper Khizer Hayat, 40, and his colleague Hamidullah Hamidi, 31, died after being trapped inside as the flames took hold.
CCTV footage played to the court showed the fire engulfing the Price Cutter shop in Kennington within seconds.
Two weeks earlier, Torto threw a petrol bomb into a newsagents in Tulse Hill. A customer inside the shop was seriously burnt and needed skin grafts.
Torto pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and to one count of arson. Two other arson charges were not pursued.
The Recorder of London, Judge Peter Beaumont, said Torto had brought "terror to the streets".
"They amounted to repeated firebombing attacks, using petrol as an accelerant, targeting premises and people within them, which you had selected as a result of your deluded beliefs," Beaumont said.
Torto, a paranoid schizophrenic, was ordered to be held indefinitely at Broadmoor, the secure psychiatric hospital in Berkshire.
At an earlier hearing, Torto had described himself as the "son of God". Voices in his head told him to carry out the attacks to "free him from Satan", the court heard.
Outside court, Detective Chief Inspector David Garwood, who led the investigation, said: "Torto was an incredibly dangerous man. He was paranoid and deluded.
"This led to the attacks on the premises and ultimately the devastation of two families.
"I am convinced that had Torto remained undetected he would have attacked again which may have resulted in the further loss of life."
reminds me of (im not sure if it was a hadith...) of when a master left his servent to make him dinner, went to work and came back extremely hungry and then due to hunger the master killed the servent (becoz dinner was not ready).
anger is disgusting eh...
audhubillah
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My tears testify that i have a heart
yet i feel me and shaytan never part
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"I am convinced that had Torto remained undetected he would have attacked again which may have resulted in the further loss of life."
These were premeditated acts of murder & terror committed by a cognizant individual.
He shouldn't be placed in a psychiatric hospital. He should be sent to the British Gitmo.
He should be made an example of, because in the future, anyone can attack Muslims and non, and claim insanity Just to avoid imprisonment with hardcore criminals, and instead languish in a hospital...
It was a racist attack according to "Local London"
but if you can feign diminished responsibility, it is just as easy to become cured after a few months inside a hospital and hey presto! you are free again
btw. the fire engulfed the shop within 2 minutes due to it being..... guess what? full of wines and spirits as it was an off license
I am thinking if those Afghan fellows and azad kashmiri owner had been engaged in a halal endeavor fire may have taken a bit longer to spread thus giving them a chance to escape it??
These were premeditated acts of murder & terror committed by a cognizant individual.
He shouldn't be placed in a psychiatric hospital. He should be sent to the British Gitmo.
He should be made an example of, because in the future, anyone can attack Muslims and non, and claim insanity Just to avoid imprisonment with hardcore criminals, and instead languish in a hospital...
The article specifically indicates he carried a diagnosis of "paranoid schizophrenia". He is clearly violent. A lockdown psychiatric hosptial is not a pleasant place but, if he could be housed in a prison on meds without biting a guard's ear off or something that is fine with me. He needs to stay in a secure facility forever. Some psychiatrist should not be able to deem him rehabilitated as he would just come off his meds and turn back into a delusional nutcase when out of supervision.
What to do with violent schizophrenics is a big societal problem, but I think that is the limit of scope of this story.
BTW...your Git'mo reference is geographically apt as what you suggest is exactly what Castro's regime does with the mentally ill.
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More violence in the name of god.
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