Court - 'victim knifed 39 times'
A former Shrewsbury School boy killed his lodger by stabbing him 39 times in the face, head and body, a court heard. Gordon Coltart, 35, attacked Andrew Anderson as he sat on the sofa in the house they shared in the wealthy village of Barnston, Wirral.
Coltart, who suffered a powerful form of schizophrenia, became convinced Mr Anderson was sexually abusing a local barmaid.
He told police the woman had commanded him through voices in his head to carry out the attack on April 23 this year.
The court heard Mr Anderson had done nothing wrong and had previously tried to help his landlord to cope with his mental illness.
Coltart pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday. He was detained in a secure psychiatric hospital indefinitely.
Coltart had suffered mental illness, which he blamed on his experimentation with illegal drugs while studying sports science at Loughborough University.
His parents, described in court as "a respectable and eminent Merseyside family", bought him a house near theirs, encouraged him to seek medical attention and to take in lodgers to help pay the bills.
Around two months before the killing, Coltart persuaded his GP to reduce his medication and his behaviour became erratic.
On the day of the attack he was found blood-soaked and wandering the streets.
Merseyside Police attended the scene and Coltart told arresting officers: "Anderson has gone to Hades. I have killed him. I stabbed him in the head about 150 times."
The officers entered the house and found Mr Anderson in the living room, and a 12in kitchen knife lying nearby. Its tip had snapped off due to the ferocity of the attack.
Coltart, in a letter to the court, said: "I feel truly a huge amount of remorse towards the Anderson family. I have no idea how they might rebuild their lives."
Speaking outside court, the victim's sister, Heidi Anderson, said: "People act like Gordon Coltart is the victim, because he didn't get the right treatment, but there is only one victim here, and that's Andrew."
By James Holt
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