Elliot Guy’s killer ‘heard voices’ before vicious knife attack

Published: 18 March 2010
by DAVID ST GEORGE

A “WALKING timebomb” who always carried a knife has been jailed for life for stabbing “a decent hard-working stranger” to death at a party.

Colin Welsh, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, deliberately inflamed his fragile mental state by binge drinking and taking a cocktail of drugs including crack cocaine, the Old Bailey heard on Tuesday.

Described as a “public danger”, Welsh, 42, racked up more than 30 criminal convictions for dishonesty and serious violence before gaining a university place at St Andrew’s in Scotland to study philosophy. He was thrown out in 2008 following a vicious assault on a fellow student who needed facial surgery.

Within weeks of returning to London, Welsh attacked proud new father Elliot Guy, 27, fatally stabbing him in the neck at a flat in Junction Road, Tufnell Park, in the early hours of July 19, 2008.

Mr Guy, who grew up in Gospel Oak and Tufnell Park, was “completely blameless” and targeted at random by his killer. His partner, Amy Smith, mother Sally Jayne Brown, sister Genevieve and brothers Lewis and Wayne were in court for the harrowing proceedings.

Mr Guy, a talented wood craftsman and cabinet maker, was a former Hargrave Park primary and Holloway School pupil. He was described as a “gentle giant” and a “thoroughly decent, much-loved family man” by prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw, QC.

He doted on his 12-week-old daughter Eleanor and his partner, who he lived with in Ealing.

Judge Brian Barker, QC, ordered the killer, flanked by four guards in the dock, to serve a minimum of 12 years in prison.

Welsh admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. His denial of a murder charge was accepted but Mrs Brown thanked the judge who had been urged to pass sentence under the Mental Health Act for “highly intelligent” Welsh to be treated at a secure hospital.

Welsh, from Finsbury Park, was living with a friend at the time of the killing. He told psychiatrists he had been “hearing voices” for many years and said a “monitoring device” had been implanted in his head by criminals to read his thoughts.

The voices indicated that Mr Guy had been sent to kill him, he claimed.

Judge Baker, The Common Serjeant of London, catalogued his lengthy criminal record, beginning at the age of 15 for burglaries, wounding, robbery, theft, assaults, having a knife, carrying a gun and drugs possession, with the longest jail term served being five years.

Mr Laidlaw told the court that Mr Guy, his cousin and a friend arrived at the party at midnight with everyone enjoying themselves and “no hint of trouble” until Welsh turned up.

Welsh was described as “educated and articulate” but also a “dangerman” who at any time could become “angry and explosive”. He would often clutch his head and scream hysterically about “the voices”.

At 2.45am, Mr Guy was washing his hands in the bathroom when Welsh kicked in the door. He threw what other guests thought was a punch, but actually had a knife in his hand. Mr Guy suffered a gaping 11cm-deep wound which had split the jugular vein.

He managed to get away from the flat “fighting for his life” but as Welsh ranted and raved about the noise, Mr Guy collapsed in Dartmouth Park Hill.

Despite frantic efforts surgeons at the Whittington Hospital could do nothing to save him and he was pronounced dead at 3.59am. 

Welsh was bundled out of the flat by angry party-goers. Later, they tried to clean up and three of them found themselves under arrest.

After “lying low” in Tottenham, Welsh gave himself up at Islington police station on July 29. Kim Hollis, QC, defending, said Welsh had been failed by the medical authorities after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2002.