Son beat mum to death with hammer before jumping from railway bridge
Man heard voices telling him to kill his mother
AMAN “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 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.
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 they found his mum.
Mr Power said: “A post -mortem examination 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 the 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 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.”
ANDREW Tinton, who beat his mum to death, masked signs his schizophrenia was worsening in the weeks before he killed her, a court heard.
Tinton was detained in hospital under the
Mental Health Act last week after admitting to using a lump hammer to kill his mother in their Southport home last year.
Liverpool Crown Court heard how Tinton had lived with mental health problems for almost 30 years and was receiving treatment for paranoid schizophrenia for much of that time.
Psychiatrists treating him said he appeared to be largely compliant with the medication and appointment regime set out for him by doctors and was coping with the condition.
That changed rapidly against the backdrop of the pandemic, as well as the death of his dad, who doctors said was a central figure in his life.
Nigel Power, QC, prosecuting, said Covid restrictions meant the appointments he normally would have attended in person were only held remotely.
Despite this, psychiatrists continued to monitor him over the phone, checking on his mental state and whether he was taking his medication.
Doctors continued to assess him and noted that his condition was worsening, as did a taxi driver who was one of the last people to see Tinton and his mother together a few days before he killed her.
Mr Power said: “The last contact with him described him as being ‘not his usual self’.
“He went with his mother for her Covid vaccination.
“The taxi driver who took them describe his mother as being chirpy – but she became upset and started to cry because she was worried about her son.”
On January 29, 2021, Tinton beat his mum to death with a lump hammer he found in their shed.
Dr Dineka Gray, a psychiatrist at Rowan View Hospital who treats Tinton, said all evidence pointed to the 55-year-old being symptomatic for his illness at the time.
She added that the nature of some of the changes to appointments made as a result of the pandemic made it harder for doctors to assess patients like Tinton.
Recommending he be detained in hospital until he is no longer deemed a risk to the community,
Dr Gray said that the extent of Tinton’s deterioration had not been clear to a doctor in a phone call not long before he killed his mother.
Dr Gray said: “He masked his symptoms to the point that even a junior psychiatrist speaking to him on the phone could not detect that he had deteriorated.”
Julian Nutter, defending Tinton, said that, despite the efforts of staff, changes to Tinton’s treatment as a result of Covid were likely to have had an impact on their ability to treat him.
He said : “The tragedy is not just a tragedy from the point of view of what he did to his mother but it is that all of this appears to have been preventable.”
Detaining Tinton in hospital, Judge Denis Watson, QC, said the voices he heard as a result of his mental illness had devastating consequences.
He said: “The tragic consequence and effect of this was that on this occasion the voices told you to harm not just yourself but your mother, which is to me a sign of the severe nature of the relapse.”