VIDEO: Beheader found not guilty but insane

A deranged cage fighter, who was caught on CCTV beheading an elderly woman and two cats during a 45-minute rampage through back gardens will be locked up indefinitely in a psychiatric hospital.

Nicholas Salvador, 25, believed he was killing “demons” when he ran amok, tearing down fences and kicking down neighbours’ doors in Edmonton, north London, on the afternoon of September 4 last year, the Old Bailey heard.

Video footage taken from a police helicopter overhead showed 82-year-old cafe owner Palmira Silva, wearing a pinny, approaching the bare-chested Salvador over her garden wall.

After a brief exchange, the crazed killer vaulted into her garden and stabbed her repeatedly before cutting her head off and holding it aloft, the court heard.

The final moments of Mrs Silva’s life and the immediate aftermath were edited out of a harrowing 14-minute clip shown to the jury in front of members of the victim’s family.

Salvador was eventually cornered in the front room of a neighbour’s house and Tasered six times during a violent and chaotic struggle in which one police officer was injured.

Salvador had denied murder by reason of insanity and his trial heard that two psychiatrists agreed that he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

The jury retired at 11.40am and returned the verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity after 40 minutes deliberations.