Paranoid schizophrenic stabbed stranger to death in front of Jack Whitehall’s girlfriend Gemma Chan
The actress, who starred in the Channel 4 show Humans, witnessed the attack
A PARANOID schizophrenic who stabbed a complete stranger to death in front actress Gemma Chan has been detained indefinitely today after admitting manslaughter - almost four years after the attack.
Frederic Russell locked eyes with the former model and current girlfriend of comedian Jack Whitehall after knifing 65-year-old Colin Hammond to death in a busy London street on October 25, 2012.
The Sherlock actress, who has also starred in Humans, Doctor Who and Secret Diary of a Call Girl, later picked out Russell on an identification parade.
The 30-year-old killer was locked away in a psychiatric hospital in September 2013 following a short hearing where psychiatrists had found him unfit to stand trial.
But today The Old Bailey heard Russell had made "considerable progress" and was fit to enter a plea - although he still suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.
He stood in the dock flanked by medics to answer not guilty to a charge of murder but guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.
Judge Richard Hone QC detained Russell indefinitely in a secure mental hospital under the Mental Health Act.
The judge said: "A totally innocent man was knifed to death while you were experiencing a psychotic episode and no words from me can give comfort to the distressed members of the family.
"It is a tragedy that you have caused to a totally innocent family and individual."
The killer, who lived in France with his mother, had stopped taking his medication while visiting the UK for his father's funeral and refused to get the ferry home from Dover with his family.
The court heard he had clawed at his father's coffin to try and get him out as undertakers desperately tried to keep the lid on the casket.
Russell's family eventually abandoned him and went home to France - even though he had a knife and was clearly unwell.
Just twenty-four hours later he launched his attack on Mr Hammond, a quiet homeless man with a history of alcohol abuse, in a public street in Fulham, west London - plunging the knife savagely into his neck.
Prosecutor Alan Kent QC said: "The two men were strangers to each other and sadly this was a random attack by someone with a severe mental illness on a member of the public who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Incredibly Russell had previously spent six months in a psychiatric hospital in Liverpool in 2007 after stabbing his father Derek Russell in the hand and leg during a visit to his home in Cheshire.
Russell was treated at a psychiatric hospital in Liverpool for six months before returning to France.
In 2013 he was found unfit to stand trial at the Old Bailey for the killing of Mr Hammond after psychiatrists decided he was too mentally ill to give instructions to his lawyers.
A trial of the facts that year heard evidence from witnesses - including Miss Chan.
The jury of six men and six women found that he had carried out the stabbing after a short two-day hearing.
Russell was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2005 while living with his mother Florence Lavau in south east France.
The following year he said he had "a mission to kill other demons" and claimed the apocalypse was approaching.
His treatment continued in France until October 2012 when his father died and the whole family travelled to Northwich in Cheshire for the funeral.
During the service he began acting strangely and tried to open his father's coffin during the service - convinced he was still alive.
His mother Florence Lavau said in a statement: "There was an incredible scene where Frederic was trying to undo the screws on the coffin while the workers were trying to do them up."
Twenty-four hours later Miss Chan, who studied law at Oxford University, said that she was on her way to Putney Bridge tube station when she saw Russell kneeling on top of Mr Hammond in front of a bookshop.
The actress told the court: "Their faces were a few inches apart. Initially I continued walking past but when I got a few footsteps fast I heard sounds of a scuffle.
"One of the men shouted: 'I haven't got your f***ing money' or 'I haven't got any f***ing money'. I stopped, looked back and walked back so I was directly opposite them.
"I then noticed the man with the goatee had got his right hand pressed into the neck of the older man, just underneath the jaw.
"His hand was pressed there for about six seconds. The younger man pulled his hand away and that's when I realised there was a knife in his hand."
The attacker walked away and Miss Chan approached to see Mr Hammond ";groaning and holding the left side of his neck".
The Humans star added: "I asked him if he was all right. Then I noticed the man with the goatee re-appeared. He peered around the corner looking at the older man. He then stepped out and looked directly at me and stepped towards me.
"We started at each other for about three seconds and then the road started to fill with other people as they left Putney Bridge tube station.
"The man turned to his right, crossed the road and disappeared into the crowd. I shouted to call an ambulance and I also shouted: 'Someone take a photo of that man, he's just stabbed this man'.
The former model said she waited ten minutes for the emergency services to arrive at the scene while a local doctor tried to resuscitate the victim.
After fleeing the scene Russell was arrested near Hammersmith Bridge when cops found him trying to cut himself with the same knife.
Russell, of no fixed address, is the youngest of three children and has a history of alcohol dependency and cannabis use.