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An 80-year-old woman with dementia was stabbed more than 20 times by her grandson in east London, a court has been told.

Subell Ali, 34, allegedly murdered her grandmother, Somtera Bibi, at the family’s Manor Park home on April 2, 2022.

The alleged attack occurred at an address on Landseer Avenue, two days after Ali, who has serious mental illness, was released from a psychiatric hospital.

The Old Bailey has heard that Ali is unfit to stand trial as a result of his mental illness.

Jurors were told they would not be asked to return a verdict on whether Ali is guilty of murder, but only whether he committed the alleged acts.

On the morning of the alleged attack, Ali’s mother, Fatima Khatun, heard a “terrible scream,” the court heard. When she came downstairs, she found the victim in the living room.

Jurors were told that Ali then left a large, blood-smeared knife in the kitchen before leaving the house.

Police found him at a nearby bus stop about ten minutes later, allegedly with his sleeves covered in his grandmother’s blood.

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Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC told the jury that after Ali was allowed to return home from the hospital on March 31, he was allegedly concerned about a fearsome person he called Shahin Jahan.

Emlyn Jones said that one of the symptoms of the defendant’s mental illness was that he was hearing voices and appeared to be acting under the belief that Shahin Jahan was giving him orders.

After the police arrived at the scene, the defendant’s mother said that he had told her that Shahin Jahan “asked him to go and kill her quickly”.

While at the Forest Gate Police Station, the defendant told police: “Someone told me to do this. Why would I do that to my own grandmother?

Somtera Bibi suffered more than 20 stab wounds to the face and body, the most significant to the chest.

He also had knife wounds to his right hand and wrist consistent with raising his hands to protect himself, the court was told.