Zephaniah McLeod killed Jacob Billington in his deadly attack in Birmingham in September 2020.
Members of the public called 999 as Zephaniah McLeod killed one and hurt seven othersJacob Billington, 23, died and seven others were hurt in five separate attacks carried out over 90 minutes across the city on 6 September 2020.Judge Justice Pepperall said he would be detained at Ashworth hospital for "as long as necessary".
The court heard McLeod had refused a psychiatric appointment in the days before his fatal attacks in Birmingham.Prior to that, he had little contact with health services after being released from prison in April 2020, despite a history of refusing to take his medication and hearing voices telling him to kill and stab people.
Speaking after the sentencing, Jacob's father Keith Billington said while the family continued to grieve "we must ask the obvious question - why was McLeod... allowed to be out and about on 6 September unsupervised, unmedicated and not under licence?" This wasn't the first time that someone who was seriously mentally ill had killed someone with a knife in the centre of Birmingham.
Police said witnesses' varying descriptions of McLeod and the random nature of the attacks made it difficult to link them on the night.
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