Schizophrenic decapitated mother

Police found a severed head lying next to a chainsaw

A man who thought the Germans controlled his mind, decapitated his mother with a chainsaw.

Peter Andrews, 44, was charged with the attempted murder of Joan Andrews, 80, at their Leicester home.

Andrews was charged with attempted murder as, although he intended to kill his mother, he had not done so as she had already died in her sleep.

A jury ruled he was unfit to stand trial and he was detained indefinitely in a psychiatric unit.

The paranoid schizophrenic, who was obsessed with 1980s singer Sonia, called a nurse and told her he had chopped his mother's head off, a court heard.

'I've killed her'

He was the sole carer for his mother, also a schizophrenic, after his father Leonard died in May 2002.

Prosecuting, Frances Oldham QC, said on 28 January last year Andrews's psychiatric nurse received a phone call asking her to visit him.

When she asked if his mother was unwell he replied: "She's dead. I've killed her."

"I have given her an overdose of diazepam and I've chopped her head off with a chainsaw."

When police arrived at his house they found Mrs Andrews's severed head lying next to an electric chainsaw and decapitated body on the settee.

DIY chainsaw

Pc Adam Riddlesdon, of Leicestershire Police, told the court: "I noticed what appeared to me, it looked like a lump of meat, in the lounge.

"I realised it was in fact a severed head on the floor.

"To the right of me lying on the settee was a decapitated body and in front of the head appeared to be a DIY chainsaw."

When arrested and cautioned, Andrews told police he had been planning the attack.

"I didn't want them to take the body and freeze it. I didn't want her to go back into a home," he said.

Andrews, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1990, was remanded into secure accommodation, and interviewed by psychiatrists.

Unfit for trial

One, Dr Stefan Davies told the court: "He tried to convince me that World War III began in 1990 and since that date the country had been under the control of the Germans.

"He believed that he was receiving messages from the Germans at that time.

"Looking back through his notes they talked about a pop star called Sonia that had had some influence on him.

He said Andrews could not stand trial as he believed the jury could read his mind and only jury members from another planet would be suitable to try the case.

A second consultant said the defendant believed Tony Blair or David Blunkett had the power to get him out of secure accommodation

But they would not as they were trying to hide the fact that the Germans were ruling the country.

A second jury later returned a unanimous verdict that Andrews had committed the act of chopping off his mother's head.

'Driven to despair'

Graham Buchanan, defending Andrews, said: "The evidence is pretty clear that she was, in fact, dead by the time of decapitation.

"It has to be asked, though, how on earth he was left alone to medicate himself and his mother on a daily basis with just a fortnightly visit, how on earth such a situation could come to pass. It simply drives one almost to despair."

Judge Michael Stokes QC ordered him to be detained indefinitely at Arnold Lodge medium secure hospital in Leicester.

Andrews said nothing as he was taken out of the dock.