Schizophrenic Peter Holboll admits killing mum then torching Kentish Town flat
Peter Holboll - Credit: Archant
A paranoid schizophrenic is to be detained indefinitely after pleading guilty to killing his mother and setting fire to her flat.
Forensics officers at the scene in Lawford Road - Credit: Archant
Peter Holboll, 44, admitted the manslaughter of his mother Tamara Holboll, 76, at the Old Bailey today.
The court heard that both Holboll and his mother had pleaded for him to be taken into hospital in the days leading up to the incident, as his mental health deteriorated.
He stabbed her to death and then set fire to her flat in Lawford Road, Kentish Town, on Friday, May 9.
Holboll, who had denied murder in July, admitted manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility and arson.
Five people, including a baby, had escaped from first- and second-floor flats in the converted house where his mother lived on the ground floor.
They fled the blaze out of a first-floor window and onto a flat roof before being rescued unharmed by firefighters.
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A manhunt was launched after Holboll, of Tottenham Street, Fitzrovia, fled the scene and the public was warned not to approach him.
He was arrested later that day after arriving at the Royal Free Hospital, in Pond Street, Hampstead, and telling an A&E nurse he had hurt his mother.
Holboll had a long history of mental illness and had previously been sectioned 10 times under the Mental Health Act.
Judge Brian Barker QC made an order to keep him in hospital indefinitely.
