Man who killed his mother in knife attack handed hospital order

A man who stabbed his 71-year-old mother to death in their family home after having paranoid delusions has been handed a hospital order.

Shaun Emmerson, 51, was found to have stabbed Christine Emmerson 35 times to her neck and torso with a kitchen knife on August 3 last year, before he climbed on to the conservatory roof and called 999 to admit to the “violent attack”.

Sentencing Emmerson at Lincoln Crown Court on Tuesday, Judge Simon Hirst handed him an indefinite hospital order where he will be detained and treated for his paranoid schizophrenia.

A jury, which deliberated for four hours after hearing three days of evidence, previously found Emmerson, of Kirk Close, West Ashby, Lincolnshire , did the act alleged against him.

Jurors heard Emmerson thought he could hear his neighbours through the walls say they wanted to kill him in a “painful” way and believed that people would “attack” him in his sleep.

During the call Emmerson made to police, he could be heard asking the operator to send armed officers to “put me out of my misery” and claimed the “ Department of Justice have been torturing me for the last 20 years”.

I am satisfied that you are suffering from a mental disorder, namely paranoid schizophrenia

Emmerson, who was experiencing a psychotic episode when he killed his mother, was ruled unfit to enter a plea to the charge of murder or take part in the trial because of his mental illness.

The fact-finding trial asked jurors to decide whether Emmerson “did the acts alleged against him”, rather than find him guilty or not guilty.

The defendant, who appeared by video link on Tuesday from Arnold Lodge, a medium secure hospital in Lincolnshire, spoke only to confirm his name.

Judge Hirst told the defendant: “On 11th July, the jury found you killed your mum. You rang the police and told them you attacked your mum with a knife.

“I am satisfied that you are suffering from a mental disorder, namely paranoid schizophrenia. You will be readmitted to Arnold Lodge and detained at Arnold Lodge.”

The judge commended the dignity of Emmerson’s family members present in the court and said “the emotions must be very mixed indeed” and that it had been an “incredibly difficult” case.