A MENTALLY ILL killer who stopped taking his medication and slit his disabled neighbour's throat in Thamesmead has been sectioned indefinitely, a court heard today.

Daha Mohamed, 51, of Abbotts Close, denied murdering Colin Greenway in his ground-floor flat in June last year but pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Prosecutor Simon Denison QC accepted the plea at the Old Bailey today (Jan 27).

Mr Greenway, who was mostly confined to a wheelchair after having had a partial amputation to his leg, was found dead in his flat at around 2pm on June 15 by a friend who recalled a "strong smell of bleach" at the scene.

The 55-year-old had been battered, hit around the head with a flower pot and had his throat cut with a ten-inch carving knife.

Mr Denison told the court: "She saw Mr Greenway lying on the floor, his wheelchair was on its side, a terracotta flower pot had been smashed and was in pieces next to his head.

"There was a big pool of blood next to his head. He was obviously dead."

The court heard later the same day, Mohamed walked to Belmarsh prison in Woolwich where he told a dog-handler: "I want to report a murder."

He later told police: "I have killed my neighbour. It happened this morning."

After he was arrested, he added: "When I went into his room, I was not in my mind."

In an interview with police, Mohamed refused to answer any questions, except to say he did not get on with his neighbours and later gave inconsistent accounts of what happened.

At 2.55am on June 16, he told police: "I have killed a man. he assaulted me and attacked me therefore I plead self-defence."

At 3.22am, he said: "When I killed the man, I had a blackout because I didn't take my medication for a month."

In an another interview that day, Mohamed alleged Mr Greenway had confronted him outside his front door and slapped him.

The day before his death, Mr Greenway had told a neighbour about an argument about Mohamed, who had been sleeping in the corridor between their flats.

Mr Greenway had complained about not being able to sleep because Mohamed "was banging and banging all night".

Mohamed, who lived in the flat opposite Mr Greenway, came to the UK as an asylum seeker in 1997 to escape war-torn Somalia.

Since then, he has had periods of significant mental illness which required in-patient treatment. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia which was later changed to bipolar disorder and required medication.

The court heard Mohamed had become violent two times after he stopped taking his medication - although none led to convictions.

In April last year, Mohamed entered a Greenwich health centre and asked if his medication was still necessary and in the month before the killing, he had stopped taking it.

Consultant psychiatrist Rachel Daly, from Oxleas NHS Trust, told the court at the time of the killing, Mohamed was suffering from a schizophrenic psychosis and was not able to form a rational judgement or exercise self-control.

In a victim impact statement, Mr Greenway's sister Sue Livingston said: "He was a real character and would help anybody even through his bad times.

"He hasn't got a bad bone in his body - he wouldn't bother anybody.

The news of his death has been unbearable for all my brothers and sisters."

Judge Stephen Kramer QC told Mohamed: "It is clear to me that particularly if you stop taking your medication, you pose a serious risk to members of the public."

He ordered Mohamed to be detained under sections 37 and 41 of the Mental Health Act at the Bracton Centre in Dartford.