‘I knifed my mother to death’ said autistic man in 999 call

AN autistic man who stabbed his alcoholic mother to death after they argued over a packet of cigarettes, confessed to the killing in a 999 call, a jury heard yesterday.

Sebastian Hardy, 21, made the call after stabbing his mother Pamela in the chest, neck and back and told the operator, “I knifed her to death. I lost my temper.”

Jurors at Sheffield Crown Court heard the dramatic recording from a crackling telephone line in which the operator asked Hardy how many times he had stabbed his mother.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He replied: “I would say three to five times. One piece of her organ’s sticking out.”

During the ten-minute call Hardy said his mother was lying on her side, not breathing, with a kitchen knife sticking out of her body.

He said they had argued about his elder sister Caroline and went on: “The first knife wound entered through the top of the spine in case you are wondering.”

Asked if he attacked her from behind he replied: “Yeah.”

Hardy, of Foley Avenue, Wombwell, Barnsley, was deemed unfit to stand trial over his mother’s death.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The jury was simply asked to decide whether or not he stabbed his 48-year-old mother to death and they decided that he did.

Andrew Hatton, prosecuting, said Hardy, who has suffered from a severe form of autism since he was young, stabbed his mother nine times at their home.

In a statement read in court, Hardy’s elder sister Caroline said she and Sebastian had gone shopping but did not bring back cigarettes which her mother had requested.

The court heard her mother started screaming and shouting and said: “It’s the only luxury I have got, you treat me like a kid.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Hardy began slapping himself, pacing backwards and forwards and kept mumbling “Oh God.”

Mrs Hardy tried to hit her daughter but was so drunk she fell over and then began shouting and calling her son offensive names.

The court heard Hardy had a brain virus when he was two and was diagnosed with autism at six. He attended special schools and learned to read and write.

But he struggled to speak and communicate and was obsessed with only wearing certain colours

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

His family were taught how to handle his mood swings and he had to follow a certain routine or he would become easily upset.

But his mother, who split up with Hardy’s father in 1999, developed a drink problem which affected his care.

Caroline Hardy said in her statement: “Some of the care Sebastian should have been getting at home seemed to be lacking. He often looked as if he hadn’t been shaved or washed and his clothes looked like they needed changing.”

Hardy’s brother moved out of the family home owing to his mother’s drinking, leaving just him at home.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Hatton said the emergency services were called at 1am on Saturday, September 25 last year by Hardy.

He was found bare-chested in just jeans and trainers in the front garden. Blood was smeared on his arms and jeans.

His mother was lying in the lounge with the handle of the knife sticking from her chest. A pathologist later found nine stab wounds.

He said she would have died within a few minutes of sustaining the injuries.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The defence offered no evidence and Adrian Waterman QC, for Hardy, said his client could not participate in the court process. “I can’t say what happened on that unhappy early morning,” he said.

Judge Alan Goldsack made a hospital order without time limit, sending Hardy to a secure unit in Nottingham which treats sufferers of autistic spectrum disorder.

The judge told Hardy: “Whichever way one looks at your case it is a series of personal tragedies.

“This unknown cause of the illness that you suffered from for most of your life and the terrible effect it has had on your family, in particular your mother, and now you have made the tragedy even worse by delivering the blows that killed your mother.”

Mrs Hardy’s family refused to comment after the hearing.