Teenager stabbed boy 'after years of cannabis abuse'

A teenager suffering from paranoid schizophrenia brought on by years of cannabis abuse fatally stabbed a 17-year-old boy "out of the blue", a court heard today.

Tung Le was leaving a club just off Trafalgar Square in central London when he was knifed without warning through the heart.

His attacker Chien Nguyen had become mentally ill as a result of smoking cannabis heavily since the age of 13, the Old Bailey heard.

Nguyen, 19, of Amhurst Road, Hackney, east London, was today detained indefinitely under mental health legislation after pleading guilty to manslaughter due to diminished responsibility.

Judge Stephen Kramer told him: "With a single thrust you killed a young man in the street. What you did was unprovoked, unexpected and inexplicable.

"You have deprived a family of a much-loved son, cousin and family man."

The victim died six days after he was stabbed in February last year.

Mark Dennis QC, prosecuting, said: "The attack came straight out of the blue. There was no build-up to the attack.

"Barely any words were spoken as the defendant walked up to the victim, withdrew his knife, and delivered a forceful punch-like stab to his victim's chest.

"Witnesses were not only shocked by the violent attack itself and its consequences but were also perplexed as to why it had happened."

Nguyen was arrested three days later.

Mr Dennis said: "He readily admitted that he had stabbed Le. He was tearful and distressed but he was at a loss as to why he had attacked Le as he had."

Asked why by police he said: "I don't know - to hurt him a little bit or scare him or something like that. When it got to the point it just happened, I couldn't control myself."

Mr Dennis said Nguyen had begun smoking cannabis at the age of 13 by way of "solace" from problems at home.

He said there was a debate over the links between cannabis and schizophrenia but added: "Certainly in this case the defendant's deteriorating mental state coincided with his increasingly heavy abuse of that drug."

Both Nguyen and his victim were of Vietnamese origin and moved to Britain at a young age from Hong Kong.

They had both been in the same club on the night of the stabbing.

Le, who lived in the New Cross area of south-east London, had just completed his education at Lewisham College and was working at his father's garden centre.