Killer 'had asked for help'

A PSYCHOPATH asked for help the day before he battered a woman to death with a shovel, a court was told yesterday.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that Phillip Garner, 25, threw the body of Marie Worrell, 18, from a window at the squat where he lived. He hid it in an outside lavatory. Garner, of Dartford, Kent, was ordered to be detained indefinitely for treatment at Broadmoor after admitting manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

He had become friendly with Ms Worrell after moving into the squat next door to the shop where she worked.

Heather Hallett QC, for the prosecution, said Garner had 'a long history of psychiatric problems. Psychiatrists say he is a psychopath.

'The day before Marie died, this defendant made one of a series of 999 calls. He asked for help and asked to be sent to a mental hospital.'

After the killing, he went to the local hospital and screamed for a psychiatrist.