Alan Gingles, 34, jailed for killing 82-year-old grandmother

A man has been given an indeterminate prison sentence for killing his grandmother because he thought Covid was "turning her into a zombie".

Alan Gingles, 34, of Dromaine Drive, Larne, was originally charged with murdering Elizabeth Dobbin, 82, on 30 March, 2020.

He was later charged with manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility following psychiatric reports.

The judge said it was a "ferocious" attack and Gingles was dangerous.

Elizabeth Dobbin's body was found at a house in Dromaine Drive in March 2020.

A post-mortem examination later revealed that Mrs Dobbin was strangled before being subjected to a "serious blunt force assault" to the back and left side of her head.

The injuries, it was said, were also consistent with hammer blows, "at least eight separate blows".

Judge Patricia Smyth told Antrim Crown Court on Tuesday that Parole Commissioners will decide when and if it is safe for Gingles to be released.

Elizabeth Dobbin's body was found at a house in Dromaine Drive in March 2020

This will only occur after he has served a minimum of five years, she added.

The judge said that in his police confession, Gingles described "seeing zombies" with his grandmother in the living room of the home they had shared for a decade in the Craigyhill area of Larne.

She said Gingles, who had a long standing history of mental health problems, had an obsession with all forms of "conspiracy theories" which then escalated "at the beginning to the Covid pandemic".

He told police the zombies "were shouting at him".

Reading from written submissions of the prosecution, the judge told Gingles he then "thought your granny was turning into a zombie and that's why you hit her on her head with the hammer".

Initially he had told police of "hearing voices and that something had come over him and he then hit his granny over the head with a hammer and also strangled her".

He later hid the hammer in a box.

The judge said Gingles, who had a long-standing history of mental health problems, had in his 20s and 30s turned to the internet leading to an obsession with all forms of "conspiracy theories" which then escalated "at the beginning to the Covid pandemic".

She told Gingles that given his delusions, he believed "people were turning into zombies and it was the end of the world... and that you believed your grandmother was already dead and in a zombie state and was going to harm you".

She said it was also important to acknowledge the impact of Mrs Dobbin's "brutal and violent death" on her family which had been been described as one of "horror and devastation".