Timothy Crook detained for life for killing elderly parents

A man who killed his parents in a "brutal" attack before dumping their bodies 150 miles away has been detained in a secure hospital.

Timothy Crook, 51, was sentenced to a life hospital order after being convicted of manslaughter.

Robert Crook, 83, and Elsie, 76 were battered and strangled with a belt in their Swindon home in July 2007.

Crook, who has paranoid schizophrenia, was arrested but was judged unfit to stand trial at the time.

Sentencing him at Bristol Crown Court, Judge Mr Justice Hamblen told Crook the victims were "devoted parents".

"The killings were brutal. Your parents suffered repeated blows to the body and head, some with a blunt instrument and each of them was also strangled with a belt."

He added: "It is not known what triggered this murderous attack but it was unprovoked and most probably occurred in the bedroom while they were in bed."

Crook had moved into his parents' home in Thames Avenue after losing his job at the Ministry of Defence in Lincolnshire.

He had been sectioned in Lincolnshire in 2002 but refused to register with a doctor when he moved to Swindon in 2003.

The trial heard his parents had been frightened of him. He is believed to have killed them on 7 July before driving their bodies to his Lincolnshire property, where he dumped them in his garden.

Crook, who denied killing his parents, has been detained since 2008 at high-security Rampton Hospital in Nottinghamshire. In December 2013, doctors ruled he was fit to stand trial.

He was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility,

He was committed to Rampton for a minimum term of 16 years - including eight years already served - until authorities are sure he no longer poses a risk.