Zakari Bennett-Eko: Dad detained for killing baby son in river

Zakari Bennett-Eko died after being pulled from the River Irwell in September last year

A man who killed his 11-month-old son by throwing him into a river has been detained indefinitely.

Zakari Bennett-Eko died after he was pulled from the River Irwell in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester, in September 2019.

His father Zak Bennett-Eko, 23, who has paranoid schizophrenia, believed his child was turning into the devil.

Bennett-Eko was handed a hospital order at the Nightingale court in Salford on Tuesday.

He was convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility on Monday.

Bennett-Eko took his son out in a pushchair from his family home on 11 September last year.

At a six-day trial at the Lowry theatre, the court heard Bennett-Eko said he had passed two women with "eyes like the devil" who told him they wanted him to drown his son.

He was seen throwing Zakari into the river before walking to the Lock Keeper pub nearby where he was later arrested.

Asked for sectioning

Rob Hall, prosecuting, said Bennett-Eko's partner, who was pregnant, told him on the day of Zakari's death that he needed to start looking after himself because she would not be able to care for two babies and him.

The court heard that Bennett-Eko, who was too unwell to attend the trial, had asked to be sectioned at North Manchester General Hospital three days before he killed his son but left before he could be assessed.

Bennett-Eko had suffered from mental health problems and, at 17, was sectioned and diagnosed with psychosis related to cannabis use.

The defendant's clinician at Ashworth secure hospital said Bennett-Eko "should never have been discharged from community mental health services".

Sentencing him, judge Mr Justice Fraser said: "It is not the only failure of the system in your case.

"You seem to have slipped through the net in terms of care for your mental illness, which in hindsight was much more serious than was realised at the time.