SAMURAI KILLER AWAITS HIS FATE (From Warrington Guardian)

SAMURAI KILLER AWAITS HIS FATE

A FORMER Warrington teenager who stabbed his father to death has again had his sentence delayed after a court heard he may be suffering from a rare mental illness.

Daniel Leather, aged 17, was originally assessed as not having a mental disorder when he admitted killing his teacher father John, aged 49, with a samurai sword.

But when Leather, of Douglas in Lanarkshire, appeared for sentence at the High Court in Glasgow on Thursday, his sentencing was delayed until July 16.

Donald Findlay QC, defending, said that a psychiatrist at Carstairs State Hospital had said that the teenager showed signs of suffering from a rare mental syndrome.

Leather had originally been charged with murdering his father in the family home then at Whistlefield, Elliock, Sanquhar, Dumfriesshire, on November 14, last year, by stabbing him four times through his lungs, liver, pancreas and stomach.

But during an earlier court appearance he pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of culpable homicide (the Scottish charge of manslaughter) on the grounds of diminished responsibility because he was suffering from a depressive mental illness at the time.

He also admitted attacking and abducting his mother and forcing her to accompany him to the local High Street to withdraw £200 from a bank cash machine on the same day.