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A woman who decapitated her brother while in the grip of severe mental illness has been locked up in hospital indefinitely. Heaven Belal, 41, attacked her brother Omar Bilal with a knife after she moved to London from Plymouth to be near her older sibling in February 2021, the Old Bailey was told.

Police were called to Ms Belal’s council flat in Edmonton, north London, on the afternoon of July 27 2021 by concerned social workers after a neighbour heard screams and shouts.

The court heard that unbeknown to the first officers to arrive at the scene, the defendant had called 999 herself, saying: “It’s me, Samoeel, the Lord,” in an apparent reference to an Old Testament prophet.

Officers forced their way into the property and found a man’s body clothed only in pants and socks and lying at the top of stairs.

Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC said: “His upper half had been covered over with bin bags. It immediately seemed as if he was dead.”

He added: “That was confirmed when an officer removed the bin bags and discovered that the man’s head had been severed from his body and was missing.”

The prosecutor said the victim had also sustained multiple stab wounds to the chest and elsewhere.

Officers went on to discover the decapitated head in a bedroom wardrobe inside a plastic carrier bag.

The defendant, who appeared calm but wore heavily bloodstained trousers and shoes, was arrested on suspicion of murder.

Inside a locked suitcase, officers found a large kitchen knife which had been used to kill Mr Bilal and wiped clean.

Mr Emlyn Jones said there was no dispute the defendant killed 46-year-old Mr Bilal and removed his head with a knife.

He said: “The awful tragedy of this is that the defendant was in the grip of a very serious mental illness. Everyone involved in this case agrees that the killing is explained by her illness.”

Mr Emlyn Jones said psychiatrists agreed Ms Belal was suffering from delusions and was unaware that what she was doing was wrong.

Jurors at the Old Bailey deliberated for less than a day to find Ms Belal not guilty of murder “by reason of insanity”.

Judge Anthony Leonard today (February 1) handed her a hospital order without limit of time.

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