Nicola Cross killing: Marcin Porczynski sent to secure hospital Published duration 19 December 2016

image copyright sbna image caption The Judge said Nicola Cross "did her best to protect herself and her two young children" as she was fatally wounded

A man sent to a secure hospital for killing a mother of two told doctors he had to sacrifice her to save his own family, a court has heard.

Marcin Porczynski admitted stabbing Nicola Cross, 37, to death in September 2015 in Hemel Hempstead.

Mrs Cross's husband Danny had told St Albans Crown Court he heard his wife's screams over the phone as Porczynski broke into their home and attacked her.

Porczynski, 24, will serve an indefinite spell at a psychiatric unit.

image copyright SBNA image caption Porczynski broke into Nicola Cross's home after police had stopped and searched him

Porczynski, of Claymore Avenue, Hemel Hempstead, had admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The court heard he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the attack and had been hearing voices for up to two years before the killing.

He broke into Mrs Cross's home while she was on the telephone to her husband who was working away in Hull. She was stabbed 10 times.

Porczynski arrived in the UK to work in early 2015. He told doctors he believed he had to kill Mrs Cross or his family in Poland would be killed.

Judge Andrew Bright QC ordered that Porczynski should be detained at Rampton Secure Hospital in Nottinghamshire under a hospital order with a restriction without limit of time.

image copyright AP image caption Porczynski had been knocking on doors in the area just before he killed Mrs Cross

Judge Bright told Porczynski: "As you were breaking in, Nicola Cross was on the phone to her husband Daniel.

"She told him that she had heard a noise and that he should hold on while she went to investigate.

"By then you had gone to the kitchen and taken one of the knives from a knife block.

"Although Nicola Cross tried to reason with you and heroically did her best to protect herself and her two young children from you, she was completely defenceless against the vicious knife attack you launched upon her."

In a victim statement to the court, Mr Cross said: "I will never forgive myself for not being there to protect her."

image copyright SBNA image caption Danny Cross told the court a mindless ferocious knife attack had taken his "sickeningly perfect" wife Nicola from her family

Related Topics Hemel Hempstead