SATANIST Edward Crowley was yesterday jailed for life for stabbing to death a 12-year-old boy he had been stalking.
Devil-worshipping Crowley knifed Diego Pineiro-Villar more than 30 times after vowing that the schoolboy must die as a sacrifice.
The aimless drifter had been arrested and released three times for stalking the youngster before the frenzied attack in front of dozens of tourists
Crowley, 52, plunged a Kitchen Devil knife into Diego as the boy's half-brother Roberto, 15, bravely tried to fight him off.
Yesterday, Diego's distraught mother Angela Fernandez was dragged from the Old Bailey after hurling missiles and abuse at the killer.
Angela, 49, screamed at Crowley in the dock: "I will cut you into pieces."
She and other relatives threw water, plastic containers and court files as she heard how Crowley had formed an intimate relationship with her son which ended in murder.
Angela's 26-year-old daughter, Ruth Carolina Pineiro, then attacked her own mother in court, lashing out with her hands and shouting in Spanish: "You killed him, you didn't look after him."
The feuding family were hustled from court by police and officials. Crowley was taken back to the cells until the outburst was over.
Judge Neil Denison went on to sentence Crowley, who admitted murder, to life imprisonment.
Diego's mother was later taken to hospital after spraining an ankle in a fall outside the court.
As she was led to the ambulance, she sobbed: "Where is my son, my beautiful son. Where is he?"
Crowley, originally from Middlesbrough, was born Henry Bibby but adopted the name of his hero, the Victorian satanist writer Edward Aleister Crowley.
He had been released on bail six weeks before the murder in London's Soho on May 7 last year.
The prosecutor told the court: "He had changed his name after the occultist Aleister Crowley who died in 1947. He wrote of Black Magic and the defendant's beliefs were to influence his decision to kill Diego."
Diego lived with his family off Charing Cross Road in central London, and was playing in a nearby park in the summer of 1999 when Crowley befriended him.
The shabby loner took the boy swimming, bought him sweets and toys and later admitted having a "flirtatious but non-sexual relationship".
When Diego rejected his friendship, Crowley vowed to use him as a human sacrifice.
Diego's mother repeatedly told police he was being stalked.
Crowley was arrested three times, but officers found no evidence of any indecency.
He was finally charged with harassing the boy and was remanded in custody for psychiatric assessment in December 1999. Crowley was eventually released on bail, even though he was considered dangerous.
Less than two months later, he killed Diego.
The warped stalker had bombarded the boy's home with phone calls and haunted him at play and at school.
The youngster was given a mobile phone by police to raise the alarm, and he had an escort to school.
But as he was out walking with brother Roberto - still believing his stalker to be in custody - Crowley took the knife from a holdall and launched his attack.
Prosecutor Mark Ellison said: "Diego was joking around pretending to order pizzas on the mobile phone. Roberto heard the noise of the defendant's bag fall to the ground.
"He ran up with something in his fist and dragged Diego by the hair and appeared to punch him. Roberto dragged him by the neck but he couldn't pull him to the ground.
"He felt pain in the leg and shouted for his brother to run away. He was trying to use his mobile. Crowley ran back to Diego and grabbed him and seemed to cover him with his whole body.
"Roberto managed to get back to his feet and went back to the defendant a second time and grabbed his arm.
"He saw the blade in his hand. As he struggled, he described him being as strong as a horse."
Police later searched the holdall and found a note in classical Latin on a diagram which translated: "Diego Pineiro is to be destroyed."
It was dated two weeks before the murder.
Mr Ellison said: "In the opinion of the experts, the diagram is primarily concerned with the references to human sacrifice, for example children, and is plainly the fruit of some considerable study of the subject."
He said the date of the note indicated that the attack was pre-planned.
Diego had told Crowley the previous summer that he wanted nothing more to do with him. The killer said the rejection made him feel "isolated, emotional and depressed."
Judge Denison told Crowley: "This was in any view a savage attack with a knife on a 12-year-old boy with whom you seemed to be obsessed but who did not want to have anything more to do with you."
The judge commended Roberto and passers-by who tried to save the schoolboy.
Roberto, who was knifed in the thigh as he tried to wrench Crowley away from Diego, now lives in Spain.
Two brave waiters - Sheikh Salim, 26, and Anwar Ali Khan, 24 - ran from an Indian restaurant and wrestled Crowley to the ground.
They grabbed the knife and held him down until the police arrived.
Diego's mother was in Spain the night he died - making preparations to flee Britain and escape the deranged stalker.
She had arranged new schooling for Diego at Pontedeume near La Coruna in north west Spain.
Now she is considering taking legal action against the police.
An inquiry has been started into the mental health and child-care aspects of the case.
Scotland Yard is privately convinced that its officers took all reasonable steps given that Crowley, although clearly disturbed, had not actually committed a serious crime and showed no violent tendencies before he became a killer.
His only previous criminal record was for shoplifting.
Angela Fernandez says: "I was so close to getting my son away from this man for good and moving back to Spain.
"There can be no more evil monster than one who kills a child. My child."