A man with paranoid schizophrenia who fatally stabbed a woman at a bus stop has been detained indefinitely.

Jala Debella, 24, attacked Anita Mukhey, 66, in front of passers-by in north London in May 2024. He stabbed her 18 times at about midday before he “casually” walked away while people rushed to help the victim.

Addressing his remarks to an empty dock as Debella had been too unwell to stand trial, Judge Philip Katz KC described Mukhey “as the heart of the family”.

At the Old Bailey, Debella was sentenced to a hospital order under the Mental Health Act with an accompanying restriction order – meaning he can be detained for the rest of his life.

The judge added: “She was a wife, mother and grandmother, stabbed to death by a complete stranger on a busy main road in north London.”

The court previously heard Debella was obsessed with gory online videos and had been able to buy a hunting knife over the internet, despite living in a residential home supporting people with mental health problems.

The knife was delivered to his home in Colindale, north London, around an hour before he used it to stab Mukhey to death, an act which mirrored violence he had watched.

Mukhey’s husband Hari said the grandmother-of-two was the “centre of our home”.

“Her absence has left silence that nothing can fill.”

He thanked “brave members of the public” who went to his wife’s aid, but said the trial had forced him to confront “deeply troubling” facts about the psychological assessments of her killer.

In a statement issued after the jury found Debella committed the act of killing Mukhey, her family said: “The court has heard a man with a severe mental illness was known to services and assessed by consultant psychiatrists as psychologically stable and safe for the community.

“At the same time, he was engaging in escalating behaviour outside those assessments, including acquiring weapons and researching extreme violence – behaviour that ultimately mirrored the violence he later carried out.

“That disconnect is hard to accept. It raises serious questions about how risk is assessed, and about whether current models are equipped to detect danger that develops beyond the spoken words of the consulting room.”

The Mukhey family also questioned why Debella was able to purchase weapons online while living in a staffed and registered mental health rehabilitation home.

An inquest into Mukhey’s death has been opened and adjourned.

Judge Katz said he did not express an opinion on the “safety of the regime” at the residential home but added: “No doubt others will consider it, hopefully soon.”

Debella’s medical consultant confirmed he had been detained under the Mental Health Act on at least three occasions before the attack.

Debella will continue to be held at Ashworth High Secure Hospital in Merseyside.