A FORMER Warrington teenager who stabbed his father to death with a samurai sword could 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.

But when Leather, of Sanquhar, Dumfriesshire, appeared for sentence at the High Court in Glasgow last Thursday, his sentencing was delayed until July 16 in Edinburgh.

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 at the family home in Sanquhar on November 14 last year by stabbing him four times through his lungs, liver, pancreas and stomach.

That charge was later reduced to manslaughter, to which he pleaded guilty.