Bristol woman given hospital order after race-hate crime stabbing

A woman who stabbed a “beloved” community member to death in what police called a race-hate crime has been sentenced to a hospital order.

Hubert ‘Isaac’ Brown, 61, of Easton in Bristol, died after being attacked in Grosvenor Road at about 15:20 BST on 29 September 2023.

Christina Howell, 37, also of Easton, admitted manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility after originally entering a not guilty plea in November 2024.

On Friday, Howell was sentenced to a hospital order at Bristol Crown Court and was given a criminal behaviour order which bans her from entering the “county and city” of Bristol indefinitely.

The court heard Howell had struggled with her mental health for more than 20 years, and prior to the attack was diagnosed with complex mental health needs.

Her family members raised concerns to her mental health team and asked for an emergency appointment which was scheduled the next day – the day of the attack.

At 14:40 BST her community mental health nurse visited her home and saw she had a lock knife in her hand, insisting the appointment could not continue while she had it.

After removing it, the appointment later ended “abruptly” and Howell stood up “making stabbing motions and expressing her intention to kill.

Howell then left the property and attacked Mr Brown, killing him with a single stab wound.

Howell was arrested at the scene in the St Paul’s area of the city and first appeared in court charged with murder on 2 October 2023.

Since then she has been detained in a high-security hospital where psychiatric reports on her fitness to stand trial were carried out.

The court heard four psychiatrists agreed Howell was suffering from a mental health condition, and the disorder “substantially impeded her judgement, rational decision-making and control”.

Sentencing, His Honour Judge Peter Blair KC said the attack was “an appalling crime of manslaughter”.

He told her: “You had, from what we’ve heard, ordered a knife online. You secreted it inside your bra and clothing. You set off from home armed with that knife and plainly you were intent on finding someone to stab.

“It was a racist attack, let’s make no bones about it. The impact on other people of that being associated with your actions makes it all the more aggravated and hurtful.”

On behalf of the family of Mr Brown, who was affectionately known as Isaac, his cousin Dion Johnson paid tribute to him in a personal statement read out in court.

She said: “To know him was to know warmth, laughter and love.

“The pain of his absence is unbearable, and the circumstances of his death remain incomprehensible.

“Accepting that Isaac is no longer with us is a challenge we face every day.”

She added: “To know those [racist words uttered by Christina Howell] were some of the last words Isaac heard before he died causes us all unbearable pain.

“Isaac was more than a statistic, more than another victim of racist violence.

“His memory deserves respect, and his loss must not be in vain.”

Det Insp Nadine Partridge, who led the team investigating Mr Brown’s death, said in a statement Howell “has shown no remorse for the killing”.