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Killer may never be free from life term

6/ 8/2008

A KILLER who butchered an innocent disabled man in his flat has been told he may never walk free.

Neil Read, now 25, stabbed Paul Cooper at least 43 times and punched, kicked and stamped on him, after claiming he had been sent by God to ‘wipe out perverts’ in March 2005.

Read, who formerly lived on Higher Lomax Lane, was sent to Ashworth secure hospital by a Manchester Crown Court judge in September 2006 on the grounds that he was medically unfit to stand for trial.

He appeared at the court again last week and was told by Judge Anthony Gee, who heard the case on both occasions, that he might never walk free.

Read had inflicted a campaign of hate and violence on 40-year-old Mr Cooper, of Walton Street, who was left disabled after a motorcycle accident. Read suffered delusions caused by mental illness and wrongly believed he had been sexually abused by Mr Cooper.

The court heard last week that Read had received treatment at Ashworth and had recovered enough to understand what he had done to Mr Cooper.

He admitted a charge of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and Judge Gee sent him back to Ashworth for life, describing the killing as ‘unprovoked and frenzied’.

Read, who was said to suffer from a schizophrenic disorder, had attacked Mr Cooper on two previous occasions with bats and threatened him numerous times.

Because of his bike accident, police said Mr Cooper’s disability meant it was virtually impossible for him to defend himself against ‘such a violent and sustained attack’ and that his family were devastated by his ‘senseless and tragic death’.

Judge Gee told Read: "This was a frenzied attack on a perfectly decent man who was much loved by his family and whose death caused a great loss."