Lincolnshire man given hospital order for stabbing mother to death in her home

Christine Emmerson was found dead at her home in Lincolnshire Credit: Family handout

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, stabbed Christine Emmerson 35 times in her neck and torso with a kitchen knife in Lincolnshire on August 3 last year.

The court heard he then 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 order to be detained in hospital, where he will be treated for his paranoid schizophrenia.

Police were called to the Emmerson family home in West Ashby on 3 August last year.

The jury in a fact-finding hearing had 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.

In a 999 call played in court Emmerson could be heard asking the police operator to send armed officers to “put me out of my misery.”

He also claimed the “Department of Justice have been torturing me for the last 20 years”.

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 three-day trial of facts 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.


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