Killing of Palmira Silva

On 4 September 2014, 82-year-old Palmira Silva was beheaded in her back garden in Edmonton, London, by 25-year-old Nicholas Salvador, who was on a rampage.

Friends of Salvador had recently noticed odd behaviour by him, including drug and alcohol abuse and an obsession with videos of beheadings.

[2] After finishing a college course in Media, he had spells as manual labourer,[1][6] losing his job as a billboard paster three days before the killing due to concerns surrounding his behaviour.

[6] His friends told the police that Salvador used cocaine and skunk cannabis, and would drink a bottle of whisky or brandy per day.

[8] Public speculation linked the killing to the recent beheadings of two American journalists by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

[9] The day following the killing, tabloid The Sun ran the front-page headline "'Muslim convert' beheads woman in garden", which received a mixed reception from the public due to the conflicting accounts of Salvador's beliefs or motive.

[6] Shirtless, and armed with a knife and a broom handle, Salvador began to rampage, knocking down his neighbours' fences and beheading two cats.

[5] The judge, Recorder of London Nicholas Hilliard, concluded: It is established beyond any doubt that you killed Mrs Silva in an attack of extraordinary brutality and ferocity.