Shocking moment crazed knife-wielding killer runs through London streets topless after stabbing tourist to death

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This is the shocking moment a crazed killer ran through the streets in his underwear after stabbing a French tourist to death.

Nicholas Foy, 39, was seen running through the streets of Eltham on August 11 last year after a 24-hour drink and drugs binge.

The father-of-three, who murdered a random stranger while suffering a paranoid delusion that there was a bomb planted in his foot, has been jailed for life.

Foy had snorted four-and-a-half grams of cocaine, when he murdered French tourist Laurent Volpe in the street.

Foy runs through the streets of Eltham
Met Police

Mr Volpe, who was on holiday in London and had spent the day sightseeing with his wife and two children, was shopping for dinner when he was attacked by Foy with a large kitchen knife in Eltham.

Victim: Laurent Volpe
Metropolitan Police

He was struck by Foy in the stomach and managed to stagger to a nearby shop for help, but died three days later in hospital.

Sentencing Foy to life in prison with a minimum term of 17 years behind bars, Judge Sarah Munro QC said Foy was delusional at the time of the murder, on August 11 last year, but he deliberately risked becoming dangerous with his drink and drugs binge.

Foy was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 17 years behind bars
Met Police

“You deliberately combined a large amount of alcohol and a significant amount of cocaine in a binge which lasted around 24 hours, and you knew a combination of the two could make you paranoid, violent and dangerous”, she said.

“You were not in your right mind, though that was down to your own dangerous decision to combine alcohol and cocaine.”

Describing the attack, the judge said Foy had emerged from his home in Eltham at around 7.30pm while armed with a large kitchen knife, walking back and forth across the road and repeatedly gouging his own foot with the blade.

“You believed there was a bomb inside your foot”, she said. “You set off running up the pavement with the knife in your hand. When you came across Laurent Volpe, you plunged the knife into his abdomen.”

Foy, a delivery driver, then began rampaging through nearby gardens and had to be Tasered several times by police when he was arrested. He also headbutted a police officer at hospital while making a bid to escape.

He confessed he was “obliterated” on alcohol that evening, and had taken cocaine every day from the age of 17 until he stopped in 2013. Foy also admitted to a psychiatrist that he had “hallucinated and became convinced his life was at risk” just before the murder, and had a previous history of becoming violent after drink and drugs binges.

In an impact statement, Mr Volpe's wife, Cecile Chapuis, told the court she has a "tremendous sense of loss and suffering since the death of Laurent."

Describing him as "smiling, kind, passionate, and full of life", she said: "I do not have a partner to share daily events of life, joy and sadness."

She added: “Bravely I will continue with the same spirit, on the path we started together, to achieve small and big things so he is proud of us.

Susanne Alavi, from the CPS, said: “Laurent Volpe was on his way back to see his family when he was attacked for no reason other than walking passed Foy at that given moment. It could have been anyone who had the misfortune of being there at that time.

“During his trial, Foy simply blamed his behaviour on the sheer amount of drink and drugs he had consumed. He conceded that when he combined alcohol and drugs he could not control his violent and aggressive temper – but yet he willingly chose to take this deadly cocktail before stabbing Mr Volpe to death. This was a cynical and callous way of absolving himself of responsibility.”

Foy, from Eltham, denied murder but was convicted by the jury earlier this week.

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