Khaberni - A British court sentenced a man to life imprisonment for killing his mother with 30 stabs after believing she was a "witch", influenced by hallucinations stemming from his schizophrenia.
The court ruled that Daniel Cook (39 years old) would spend life imprisonment, with a minimum of 21 years before considering parole, after convicting him of murdering his mother, Eileen Cook (72 years old), in a brutal crime where he inflicted more than 30 stabs under the influence of hallucinations that made him believe she was a "witch".
The sentence was issued under what is known as a "hybrid order", which combines compulsory treatment in a psychiatric hospital with subsequent imprisonment when his condition stabilizes, a legal measure used in the UK when the perpetrator commits a serious crime while suffering from a mental disorder.
The crime occurred on May 11 (May) inside the family home in Littlethorpe near Leicester, during a family dinner, where the son followed his mother into the kitchen and then began the attack on her.
According to details heard by the court, the husband heard his wife's screams repeatedly saying "no", only to find her bleeding in the kitchen, while her son stood over her holding a blood-covered knife.
The mother escaped from her son by crawling towards the street through the garage door, while he pursued her and continued stabbing her until she died, despite attempts by the father and a neighbor to stop him, and a number of residents witnessed the scene from their homes and called the police.
The prosecution clarified that the accused suffers from severe mental disorders, having been previously transferred to a specialized psychiatric unit in 2023, and it was proven that he had threatened his mother with a knife in 2009.
His sisters provided moving statements, one of which said that her brother would be a "real danger" if released in the future, while the other spoke about their mother's constant fear that his illness would end in a violent crime.
