NAKED SWORDSMAN ‘THOUGHT CHURCHGOERS WERE DEMONS’
>Thursday, June 01, 2000 18:58 Press Association
> A naked man wielding a Samurai sword tried to kill members of a church
>congregation because he believed they were demons, the Old Bailey heard
>today.
> Unemployed Eden Strang, 26, left eleven churchgoers, including an
>elderly
>nun, seriously injured after attacking them with the sword and a knife.
> He was only overcome after the Sunday morning worshippers at St
>Andrew’s Roman Catholic Church, in Thornton Heath, south London, tackled
>him with a crucifix and an organ pipe, said Nicholas Hilliard, prosecuting.
> Strang had gone to the church near his home in Brook Road at 10.30am on
>November 28 last year, believing the congregation was made up of demons
>who had taken on human forms.
> Strang denied seven charges of attempted murder, and six charges of
>assault.
> Mr Hilliard told the jury that the facts of the case were not in
>dispute, but
>they would have to decide whether to accept medical evidence that he was
>insane.
> If they decided he was insane they would have to return verdicts of not
>guilty through insanity, and this would allow the judge to ensure he was
>treated
>in such a way as to protect the public, he said.Strang sat in the dock
>dressed in
>a smart suit as Mr Hilliard told the court that prosecution and defence
>psychiatrists were unanimous that Strang was legally insane at the time.
> Mr Hilliard said: “He was suffering from schizophrenia and voices told
>him
>to go and attack the people in the church.
> “He was suffering insane delusions that the people he was attacking
>were
>not human beings but demons who had taken on human form.
> “He did not appreciate the true nature of what he was doing. He was so
>deluded that he did not know he was doing anything wrong.”
> Mr Hilliard said Strang had first encountered Paul Chilton, 55, outside
>the
>church and caused him “grave injuries”.
> Then he had gone inside where a service was being held, and attacked a
>number of people.
> “Some of the victims’ injuries were directly as a result of blows from
>the
>sword,” he said.
> “Some were caused while attempting to escape ferocious and sustained
>attacks.
> “The attack ended only because of the bravery of some of the
>congregation.”Mr Hilliard said Strang had caused very serious, and in some
>cases lasting, injuries “as well as causing terror”.
> The court heard that the first victim, Paul Chilton, 55, was slashed
>several
>times outside the church.
> He suffered major injuries, including having part of his hand cut away
>and
>permanent injury to his jaw bone.
> Strang next used his sword on Joe Gesh, 35, who was sheltering his baby
>in
>the porch. He suffered severed tendons and a shoulder injury.
> Inside church, Sister Theresa McManus, 76, suffered a back injury as
>she
>tried to get away.
> Margaret Lucas, 67, had her right arm almost cut off. Gregory
>Fernandez,
>69, lost the fingertips of his left hand, Eileen Bunker, 76, broke her hip
>during
>the struggle.
> Another victim, Winifred Kamath, 74, said in a statement that she felt
>her
>head exploding and saw blood. Her grandson had pulled her away saying:
>”Come on, grandma, before he kills us.”
> Brave parishioners had used whatever was available to try to overpower
>Strang.
> One person had used someone’s Zimmer frame but it was knocked away,
>another grabbed a crucifix but it was knocked out of his hand with the
>sword.
> Off-duty Pc Tom Tracey, 41, managed to push Strang away with an organ
>pipe and he was then overpowered by others.
> The court heard that, in hospital, Strang was asked why he had done it
>and
>said: “I am passing judgment.” He accused the churchgoers of worshipping
>false idols.In a statement read in court by Nadine Radford QC, defending,
>Strang’s wife Michelle said her husband had no specific religion but saw
>himself as “the servant of God”.
> They had met while he was studying business at Paisley University in
>Scotland and had a young daughter.
> Over the years, he had become more interested in religion and shortly
>before the attack had read an article about pagan worship.
> He had been made redundant from his computer job in June 1999 and had
>taken to spending the day in bed reading the Bible, as well as spending
>hours
>on his computer.
> She said Strang had had a tragic life: his stepfather had taken an
>overdose
>and died in front of him when he was 11, and his drug addict mother had died
>of Aids a year later.
> He was bought up by his grandmother in Glasgow and said he had been
>stabbed three times there – the first time when he was 15 and nearly died as
>a
>result.
> Mrs Strang said her husband had talked of taking her away from “Satan’s
>world” and on another occasion that he was married to God.
> He had left the house after taking a bath and then a woman knocked on
>her
>door pleading with her to call the police because there “was a mad man with
>a
>sword” at the church, she said.
> The hearing was adjourned until tomorrow.