Killer son stabbed 'witch' mother 21 times

A divorced father of three stabbed his mother 21 times after becoming convinced that she was a witch and had put a curse on him, a court heard today.

Kayode Kuye tortured and killed Christina Kuye, 69, because he believed she had ruined his life with a black magic spell, the Old Bailey was told.

Unemployed Kuye, 50, of Edmonton, north London, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Judge Christopher Moss locked up the paranoid schizophrenic indefinitely under mental health laws and described it as a "brutal" killing.

Kuye attacked his mother after letting himself into her home in Finchley, north London, with a key in May last year, the court heard.

After a lengthy argument he knifed her 21 times to the upper body, also slashing her arms and hands as he tried to defend herself.

He was later arrested covered in blood at Finchley Central station, laughing as he said: "I have had an argument with my mother."

Officers forced their way into her home where they found her body in her bedroom.

Kuye later told psychiatrists that his purpose was "to torture his mother to try to prevent her from continuing what he perceived to be black magic upon him," said Alan Kent QC, prosecuting.

Mr Kent said: "The motivation behind his attack was his paranoid and deluded belief that his mother had cursed him through witchcraft and had ruined his life."

Mrs Kuye came to Britain from Nigeria in 1961 with her husband, who died on 1984. She had eight children, including the defendant, and 20 grandchildren.

She herself believed in witchcraft and her son became increasingly interested in the subject during the four years before he killed her.

His mother helped him get in touch with a witch doctor she knew in Nigeria and he would send him money "for advice and medicine", the court heard.

Two years before the killing he began to blame her for all his problems, saying she had "sacrificed him as a child and had put a curse on him".

He believed that "he was a king and should be rich but the curse prevented this from happening".

For about a year before his mother's death he had been saying he was going to kill her, as well as other family members.

On the day of the stabbing he had been "ranting and raving" at his ex-wife and told her that "he had to go and do what he had to do", the court heard.