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A man with a suspected history of psychiatric illness was arrested early today in connection with the frenzied knife attack on a pensioner in London.
The 22-year-old was seized at his home in the early hours after police received a tip-off.
He lives near the scene of the attack on 82-year-old Ann Driscoll in Burns Road, Harlesden.
Police described the arrest as “significant”. The man was being questioned at a police station in Brent. The Asian man is understood to have a history of mental illness.
Mrs Driscoll was knifed repeatedly in the neck and stomach as she walked home from a shopping trip in Harlesden on Monday. She was stabbed six times and also suffered grazes and cuts that were at first also feared to be knife wounds.
The pensioner had been carrying supermarket shopping bags and was returning to her housebound husband Cornelius.
Today's arrest came today as detectives released CCTV footage of the pensioner shopping at Tesco in Harlesden High Street. One theory was that Mrs Driscoll had been followed from the High Street by her assailant and police are appealing to anyone who saw her to come forward.
Mrs Driscoll is now making a good recovery in hospital and has been able to give detectives some “sketchy” details about her ordeal. She says she was attacked from behind as she walked down the street and suffered two stab wounds in her back.
But she was only able to give a vague description of her assailant who she described as white, about 6ft tall, in his latetwenties, with smart, short brown hair and wearing brown clothes and a white shirt. Nothing was stolen.
Mrs Driscoll was attacked in Burns Road just before 3pm but managed to stagger towards her home before being helped by a member of the public in Fortune Gate Road.
Witnesses who helped and called for an ambulance said she had a gash to her neck and blood pouring from stomach wounds.
