Son sentenced for murdering his mother in horrific attack
Man given hospital order to protect public after killing of hairdresser
A VIOLENT son who viciously stabbed and strangled his 59-yearold mother in a horrific attack has been given a hospital order after he was found to have murdered her.
Rick Parker, 40, of Aspen Close, Market Weighton, was in the court’s secure dock when the order, which has no time limit, was imposed. Restrictions were made as part of the hospital order with the intention of protecting the public.
A trial was held after it was ruled that, because of Parker’s mental health problems, he was unfit to enter a plea on a charge of murdering Helen Harrison, a hairdresser. Earlier this year, a jury at Hull Crown Court decided that Parker committed the act of murder on March 5 last year.
The prosecution claimed that Parker strangled Mrs Harrison and stabbed her in the head and chest with a kitchen knife in her home. He telephoned for an ambulance and told them that his mother was lying badly injured in the hallway at their home.
She was found by police and ambulance staff, and Parker was seen in the garden. Mrs Harrison died of a stab wound to the chest and a neck injury caused by strangulation.
Parker was also found to have committed the act of assaulting his stepfather, Mrs Harrison’s husband, causing actual bodily harm, during an earlier incident on February 19. It was claimed that Parker had punched and headbutted him.
After the jury’s decisions at a previous hearing, defence barrister James Horne KC said that the court had the power to make a hospital order on Parker. Efforts had previously been made to transfer Parker to Rampton high-security hospital, Nottinghamshire. He had been deemed suitable for a transfer there and it was confirmed at the latest hearing that Parker was now in Rampton.