Cullercoats man cleared of murder due to 'insanity'

Lee Santos was "a loving brother, dad and granddad"

A man who killed a stranger when he stabbed him 50 times has been cleared of murder by reason of "insanity".

Andrew Peacock, 44, from Cullercoats, North Tyneside, faced a trial following the death of Lee Santos on 23 December.

At Newcastle Crown Court on Thursday, Judge Penny Moreland said he would be detained in a "specific hospital".

She added he must remain there until the secretary of state "consents to his discharge".

The court heard how Mr Santos, from Wallsend, had been visiting his brother, Paul Walker, who lived next door to Peacock, before the attack.

When the siblings left to visit a local shop, Peacock "pounced out of his door and jumped on his brother", prosecutor Toby Hedworth KC said.

Jurors heard that he was "too strong" to be stopped by Mr Walker as he stabbed Mr Santos in the torso, head and neck.

Andrew Peacock, from Cullercoats, North Tyneside, was deemed to have not known about his actions

After the attack, Peacock remained sitting on the floor with the knife in his hand and made a call to his partner.

Mr Hedworth, who said police arrived on the scene "extremely quickly", said: "He told her 'I think I've killed somebody, there's a body lying next to me. I don't know what's happened. I think I had a seizure'."

Several experts had examined Peacock, who agreed that at the time of the killing he "did not know the nature and quality of the act he was doing", Mr Hedworth said.

A report prepared by consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Pratish Thakkar said Peacock suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy with postictal psychosis.

This meant there was a defence of "insane automatism" to the murder charge as such behaviour occurred "without volition or will" and was a "lack of exercise of will without lack of consciousness".

Mr Hedworth said Mr Santos was an "entirely innocent man" who was in the "wrong place at the wrong time" and was killed by someone who was "seriously unwell".

It was accepted that Peacock had no memory of his actions, and Mr Hedworth said it had been an "extremely unusual case".

Following the verdict, Judge Moreland said she had not received information on a suitable bed at a specialist hospital and the case would be adjourned until later in the year.

Mr Santos' family previously praised "everyone for their support", adding they were "still processing the fact he is no longer with us".