Jasmine Forrester: Great-uncle guilty of girl's manslaughter

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-45205756

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A man who bludgeoned his 11-year-old great-niece to death with a table leg has been convicted of manslaughter.

Delroy Forrester, 51, denied murdering Jasmine Forrester on the basis he was "legally insane" at the time of the killing.

A jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court found Forrester not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Jasmine suffered more than 100 wounds during the sustained assault.

The jury heard Forrester had a brain tumour removed in 1999 but it had re-grown.

Giving evidence, psychiatrist Dr Dinesh Maganty said the growth meant Forrester, formerly of Lower Villiers Street in Blakenhall, Wolverhampton, had a lack of control over his actions.

On 9 February, Forrester visited his 79-year-old mother's home where he attacked both her and Jasmine.

Forrester's mother attempted to protect Jasmine before raising the alarm with a neighbour, telling the man her son was attacking her great-granddaughter and she thought she might be dead.

When police officers arrived, Forrester was still attacking Jasmine. She was taken to hospital with "catastrophic" injuries and later died.

The prosecution told the trial while Forrester was being held by officers, he started singing "You are the Lord my God..."

"An officer asked whether the child was safe and the defendant responded by singing that the child wasn't safe and he was a bad man," prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC had told the jury.

"He added that 'the devil had to die, I kill her blud' and 'the devil is dead'", Mr Rees added.

The court was told Forrester's daughter, Tyler, was angry that she had approached a crisis team at Penn Hospital in Wolverhampton the day before the attack but was told they could do nothing to help.

West Midlands Police said Forrester had been complaining to his close relatives and friends that he was "getting messages through the TV telling him what to say" and also spoke of demons in his head.

Forrester will be sentenced on 24 September.