Vandal who slashed £24m Gainsborough ‘was insane’

A MAN who slashed a £24million Thomas Gainsborough painting with a drill bit has been cleared of criminal damage by reason of insanity.

Keith Gregory, 63, left an ‘X’ shape in The Morning Walk when he attacked it on March 18 at London’s National Gallery.

He was cleared at Southwark Crown Court yesterday after the jury heard he had been suffering ‘severe symptoms’ of paranoid schizophrenia.

Mr Gregory, who had spent four months sleeping rough after absconding from a mental health unit, slashed the painting after hearing a voice which said: ‘Put a mark on the painting and your family will find you.’

He caused more than £10,000 damage before he was dragged away by security guards, at which point he shouted that he was going to trigger a bomb.

Recorder Timothy Fancourt ordered Mr Gregory to return to a psychiatric hospital in Northamptonshire where he has been treated since March.