A man “heard voices telling him to kill” before he beat his elderly mum to death in the home they shared.
Andrew Tinton jumped from a railway bridge near Kirkdale station hours after killing his mum by beating her with a lump hammer at least 30 times. It was only when police went to inform Rose Marie Tinton of her son’s attempt on his own life that they found the 82-year-old dead in her home on Folkestone Road in Southport last year.
Liverpool Crown Court heard this afternoon that Andrew Tinton had lived with paranoid schizophrenia since at least 2007. He had largely managed to cope with it but his mental health deteriorated significantly throughout 2020. Nigel Power, QC, prosecuting, said Tinton, now 55, appeared to be taking his medication and was in regular contact with mental health workers working with him but the lockdown caused upheaval in the way he was treated.
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He said onset of the pandemic meant a number of groups and appointments which he would normally attend in person were done remotely and the lockdown restrictions themselves impacted deeply on his mental state. Tinton’s condition worsened even further after the death of his dad, who a judge described as “the key” in his life, from cancer in August of the same year.
Mr Power said psychiatrists kept in contact with Tinton and continued to assess him but notes from his last assessment before he killed his mother described him as “not his usual self” and he complained about hearing voices. Then, on January 29 last year, he beat his mother to death in their home before leaving and walking to the train station. He eventually made his way to Kirkdale before jumping off a railway bridge there. It was only when police went to his home that they found his mum.
Mr Power said: “A post mortem was conducted by Dr Alison Armour. She concluded Mrs Tinton had been struck at least 30 times to the head with a heavy blunt object, consistent with the lump hammer next to her.” Dr Amour added that the injuries inflicted on Mrs Tinton were “unsurvivable”.
In interviews with police, Tinton said voices had told him to kill his mother and then kill himself and that it was right that the two of them die together. He was originally charged with murder but later pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Julian Nutter, defending, said Tinton’s case was an example of how, despite the best efforts of mental health professionals, lockdown restrictions limited the way in which patients could be treated. He said: “The consequence of it was that a number of people did not get access to type of treatment that they could expect to receive.”
Dr Dineka Gray, a psychiatrist involved in Tinton’s treatment at Rowan View Hospital, told Judge Denis Watson, QC, she believed it was in the interests of both Tinton and the public for him to be detained in hospital so he could be treated effectively. Tinton, now of Rowan View, was detained in hospital under sections 37 and 41 of the Mental Health Act. He will only be released when psychiatrists, in conjunction with the Ministry of Justice, assess that he does not pose a risk to the wider public.
Judge Watson said Tinton’s brutal killing of his mum was clearly the result of a catastrophic change in his mental state. He said: “In normal circumstances there was little or no animosity between the two of you but of course you and your mum did your best to support each other. Yet on January 29 your mental health had deteriorated to the point that you attacked and killed your mother with a lump hammer, hitting her numerous times on the head.
"You then jumped from a railway bridge in an attempt to take your own life.”
