Sectioned man ‘murdered’ nurse

A schizophrenic man killed a psychiatric nurse hours after being
arrested and sectioned, the Old Bailey was told last week.

A jury was told that James Cann murdered Mamade Chattun at
Springfield Hospital in Tooting, London, in July 2003, after being
arrested nearby.

Richard Whittam, prosecuting, said Cann attacked hospital social
worker Thomas White after arriving at the hospital. After Cann
refused to take his medication he was left alone with Chattun, who
ignored warnings from colleagues not to deal with him alone. Cann
then battered Chattun to death.

Nurse Adrian Joseph, who found Chattun’s body, said Cann had burst
into tears and “looked like a man who had lost it completely” when
he was restrained after the incident.

Cann, 22, denies murder, claiming that he acted in
self-defence.

The trial continues.