A disturbed Falklands veteran tortured a terrified
A disturbed Falklands veteran tortured a terrified woman in her home and tried to gouge her eyes after claiming he was a member of the local neighbourhood watch, the Old Bailey heard today.
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Ex-soldier Lawrence George Spence, 36, attacked her with a mirror in a bizarre ‘test’ after claiming he was an ‘Angel of God.
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Spence launched the prolonged assault after chatting away to 52 year-old neighbour Margaret Roulston over a few glasses of whisky.
But when the conversation turned to his horrific experiences clearing explosives after the Falklands war, Spence smashed the whisky bottle over her head.
He snarled: ‘I am the seventh angel of God and I have come to kill you.
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Prosecutor Miss Parmjit-Kaur Cheema said: ‘He called her a transvestite, kicked and punched her all over her body, smashed a lamp over her head and broke a mirror across her face.
‘With the pieces he dug into various parts of her body and tried to gouge her eyes with the steel frame of the mirror.
‘She thought she was going to die and had accepted her fate.
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Crazed Spence then cut a gash in her forearm as a way to ‘test her’, the court heard.
His attack stopped when he proclaimed Miss Roulston had passed the test.
As he calmed down she escaped and ran into the street covered in blood.
It took 30 minutes for nurses to catalogue all her injuries including a 3 centimetre gash in her forehead.
Though not life-threatening, they covered the entire length of her body.
Detectives went to her home in Brixton, southwest London, later in the evening and arrested Spence slumped drunkenly in the armchair.
Blood was spread around Miss Roulston’s home.
Psychiatrists disagree over whether Spence is mentally ill and his sentencing, on a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent, was remanded in custody for further reports.
Questioned by detectives, Spence said he could not remember anything after the pleasant conversation with his victim and said he had been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.
He had been deeply affected by witnessing the horrific deaths of fellow soldiers when an unexploded bomb went off, the court was told.
Miss Cheema had told how Spence conned his way into Miss Roulston’s home by pretending to be a former police sergeant and a member of the local neighbourhood watch group.
She continued: ‘In the victim’s home, his demeanour abruptly changed when he began telling her he had been in the marines in active service in the Falklands.
‘Ms Roulston became alarmed when he said ‘I can’t get done because the police are on my side,’ and she tried to get him to leave.
She got up from her chair and he attacked her.
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Spence, of Vassell Road, Brixton, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent – an offence which carries the maximum term of life imprisonment – on October 29 last year.
Judge Michael Coombe adjourned sentencing Spence for further psychiatric reports to be prepared after earlier assessments disagreed over Spence’s mental state.
One doctor believed he was not mentally ill.
Judge Coombe added: ‘With no motive whatsoever and the strange remarks made, the defendant has all the hallmarks of mental instability or mental illness.
This is a very difficult case.
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Sentencing is due to be passed on October 26.
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