'Jekyll and Hyde' son stabbed his mother more than 30 times as she bled to death in the street

A SCHIZOPHRENIC man who killed his mother, stabbing her more than 30 times in a brutal attack that ended in the street outside her home, has been handed a life sentence subject to a hospital order.

- By TOM MACK and SOPHIE ROBINSON

Daniel Cook, 39, who has a decades-long history of mental illness, inflicted stab wounds on 72-year-old Ellen Cook, using two knives, in Biddle Road, Littlethorpe, in May, leaving her lying in the road outside her house.

The defendant, who has had episodes of psychosis for more than 20 years and believed his mother was a witch, pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility in October.

During his sentencing hearing at Leicester Crown Court yesterday, the court heard that two weeks before the killing, Cook accused his mother of poisoning him at a family dinner.

Mrs Cook sent a message to her daughter the night before she was killed, expressing concern that her son had “come to some sort of crisis”.

Judge Timothy Spencer KC handed Cook a sentence of life imprisonment with a minimum term of 21 years, subject to a hospital order, meaning he will serve his sentence in hospital until he is well enough to be transferred to prison.

In a victim impact statement, his sister Melissa Cook said: “My mum's biggest fear was for Danny to do something violent and spend his life in prison.”

Another sister, Sophie Jovetic, said in a statement read out in court that her brother was “very much a case of Jekyll and Hyde”.

COURT TOLD OF ATTACK WHICH FOLLOWED A FAMILY DINNER

Leicester Crown Court heard details of the killing for the first time yesterday as Cook was sentenced.

Three psychologists agreed he was suffering from schizophrenia and that he believed his mum was a witch.

HOW HORROR UNFOLDED

Cook had been living in Ashby but wanted to move back to his parents’ home.

However, at a family dinner on Sunday, May 11, his mother announced that she did not want him moving back in with her and her husband, Russell.

Later, when they were in the living room, Ellen got up to go to the kitchen. Her son followed her.