Edmonton beheading: Suspect Nicholas Salvador pleads insanity

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/edmonton-beheading-suspect-pleads-insanity-10202470.html

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A man accused of beheading an 82-year-old woman in north London last year has pleaded not guilty on grounds of insanity.

Police charged Nicholas Salvador, 25, from Enfield, with the murder of grandmother Palmira Silva in September last year.

Mr Salvador is also charged with assaulting a police office.

He appeared at London's Old Bailey Court today and pleaded not guilty to murder and assault by reason of insanity.

Mrs Silva was attacked with a machete in her garden in Nightingale Road. The emergency services pronounced her dead at the scene.

Mr Salvador was remanded in custody until a two-day trial fixed to start at the Old Bailey on Monday 22 June.

The grandmother, who ran Silva’s Café in Edmonton, is understood to have moved to London from her native Italy with her husband Domenico sixty years ago.

As well as her husband, she was survived by a daughter, Celestina, and a son, Rino.

Additional reporting by PA