Psychotic son beat father to death

Timothy Wright, 42, who had been suffering from depression and had been using illegal drugs including LSD, struck his father Frank, 73, three times over the head. He later told a neighbour: "It's the beast in me, I hit him with a poker."

During the same attack, he struck his mother, Barbara Wright, as she cleaned a bathroom at the family's home on Grove Road in the upmarket suburb of Millhouses, Sheffield.

Mrs Wright, a 71-year-old retired nurse, managed to fend off her son and escaped to a neighbour's garden, Sheffield Crown Court heard. She has since made a good recovery from her injuries.

Wright denied murdering his father, but he admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. A charge of attempted murder on his mother was allowed to lie on file.

He is thought to be suffering from an undiagnosed psychotic disorder and was given an indefinite secure hospital order under Section 41 of the Mental Health Act.

Jeremy Baker QC, prosecuting, said Wright had been living in Glastonbury, Somerset, with his partner but asked his parents if he could return to live at the family home in Sheffield where he felt safe, as he thought people were going to kill him.

He told his parents he had been taking LSD and skunk cannabis and they were worried he was becoming delusional, so called in the family GP.

Wright attended a mental health clinic and said he wanted to kill himself and his parents, but did not want any medication or hospital treatment. He then rang the police and said Sheffield was going to be hit by a nuclear bomb.

After becoming more withdrawn he carried out one of his

threats on May 3 this year, just a week after returning to live at home.

His mother said she heard "metallic-sounding noises" and saw her son coming at her with a metal poker in his hand and a "strange look" on his face. She found her husband collapsed at the bottom of the stairs.

A neighbour heard Wright shout: "I'm going to hell for what I have done. I have killed him."

He told another neighbour, who knew him as a "calm and placid" individual: "It was the devil in me that did it."

When arrested by police he screamed in the police car: "I've killed the world. I'm going to hell. How can I go to heaven now?"

Dr Wright died three days after the attack in hospital from a fractured skull. His wife, who had serious injuries, recovered after surgery.

Consultant forensic psychologist Dr Andrew Bowen, who has been treating Wright, said: "He has a psychotic disorder but the exact nature of that is still under investigation."

Adrian Waterman QC, defending, said: "It is hard to imagine a world turned upside down more dramatically and more horrifically than what happened to the Wright family."

He said Mrs Wright was an "extraordinary woman" who had lost her "soulmate" yet still remained a tower of strength and support for her younger son.

Psychiatric reports revealed that drugs were not thought to be the cause of Wright's mental illness.

Sentencing Wright, Judge Alan Goldsack said he was a danger to the community and added: "Your case is tragic. No words that I might utter can bring back your father or undo what has been done. You and your family have to live with the consequences.

"It is for your mother in particular that this court has tremendous sympathy and respect for the way she has behaved towards you since these awful events occurred."