Beryl Gilcrest, 58, was a church pastor pic: Met Police

A Croydon man has been found guilty of murdering his mother, a church pastor who was found dead next to her Bible in 2010.

Jermaine Gilchrist, 36, who was accused of stabbing his mother Beryl Gilchrist to death at her home, is thought to suffer severe mental health problems and will be held in the Rampton Secure Hospital for an indefinite period.

Beryl Gilchrist, a church pastor aged 58, was found dead at her home on Miller Road on June 24. The Old Bailey heard on Tuesday how her son called the police and confessed to the murder that evening.

Psychiatrists have judged Gilchrist to be delusional and a paranoid schizophrenic. Judge John Bevan said: “I have no doubt whatsoever that Jermaine Gilchrist is to be regarded as extremely dangerous, and, at present, a continuing threat”.

This week, the court heard that Gilchrist placed a Bible next to his mother’s body and told police that “she only does evil”.

Police arrived to find the 36-year-old calmly smoking, with his mother’s body beneath a duvet in the living room, a knife beneath her body and The Bible next to her head.

At the time of the murder, Gilchrist had been on police bail in Huddersfield for stabbing his former girlfriend Joanne Helm while she held their seven month old daughter, the court heard.

On June 24, he left Huddersfield on a coach. He arrived at Selhurst station and walked to his mother’s house after buying a kitchen knife from Poundstretchers.

In an interview the following day, Gilchrist told the police: “I stabbed her, I left Huddersfield to kill her, judge her – only to finish her life. Send her on her way, she only does evil.”

He also confessed to selling his mother’s phone and buying crack cocaine.