MUMMY’S BOY
A knife maniac who chopped off his mum’s head and put it back on her body the wrong way round laughed as he was locked away in Broadmoor indefinitley.
Daniel Coriat, 44, did a Hannibal Lecter impression after crucifying and beheading mother Elizabeth, 76, because he thought she was a witch.
He inflicted nearly 50 separate injuries on her lifeless body as he hacked away at her with an arsenal of weapons.
Coriat also killed her beloved pet tortoise by hacking off one of its back legs before stripping off and wandering the streets like a naked ‘zombie.’
When he was cornered by cops he claimed he was the son of God who had ‘come down from the sky two months ago’ and was living in a wheelie bin.
He then made a ‘Hannibal Lecter suckling gesture’ and snarled at officers as they bundled him into a police van.
Coriat was due to stand trial for his mother’s murder, but prosecutors accepted a plea to a lesser charge of manslaughter.
Judge Richard Hone QC told him: ‘I have come to the clear conclusion your mental illness is the primary component of this terrible offence.
‘My task is to ensure the public is safeguarded as far as possible from any recurrence of this bizarre, grisly and grotesque violence.’
Coriat mutilated his mother’s body with implements including carving knives, secateurs, a chef’s steel and a pruning saw.
When her body was discovered last March 24, she had suffered 47 separate injuries.
Her head had been cut completely off, rotated 180 degrees and placed back on her body and she had also been extensively mutilated.
‘His mother was found on her bed, fully clothed, decapitated and mutilated with various weapons embedded in her head and body,’ said prosecutor Sarah Plaschkes QC.
‘There were injuries to the wrists and ankles, suggesting a crucifixion-like pattern.’
Coriat was found cowering inside a wheelie bin after police were called to reports of an argument with staff at a nearby Post Office.
‘He was found sitting in the corner of a wheelie bin,’ said Ms Plaschkes.
‘He refused to give police his name and said he lived in the bin and refused to get out.
‘He said he was the son of God and had just come down from the sky two months ago and had been living in the bin since them.
‘The defendant made a Hannibal Lecter suckling gesture with his mouth, laughing erratically before snarling at officers.’
Coriat is believed to have carried out the killing at his mother’s home in (2) Taymount Grange, Forest Hill, southeast London, the previous evening.
Neighbours saw him walking naked around the grounds outside and described the flat falling eerily silent.
One said: ‘He had a blank vacant stare. He was walking really slowly like a zombie, staring straight ahead.’
The following morning, Coriat was again seen wandering around, this time with his mother’s white cat under his arm.
He launched homophobic outbursts at the building’s caretaker and two carpet fitters before turning his ire on Post Office staff who challenged him for queue-jumping.
He had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia aged 18, and would often launch explosive outbursts at his mum when he stopped taking his medication.
He flew into one of his rages the day before the killing, when paramedics were called to reports of him lying in the street.
When he came around, he started launching abuse at his mother and medics feared he would physically harm her.
They reported the case to Lewisham social services but it only triggered a phone call from one of their advisers.
The killer has a previous conviction for attacking a three-year-old boy in a buggy in a random street attack.
Coriat denied murder but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
During an earlier court hearing, he claimed his mother was a witch, adding: ‘You saw the body when it was taken away.
‘It didn’t look human.’
Coriat was sentenced to a hospital order under section 37 of the Mental Health Act, coupled with a restriction order confining him to the facility ‘without limit of time’.
The murder charge was left to lie on the court file.
