A DOCTOR has told how a man who claims he was suffering from an abnormality of mind when he killed his former landlord showed no signs of mental disorder when she saw him a month earlier.

Iranian pizza shop worker Ahmedreza Fathi was detained by police who were worried when he spoke of killing someone and committing suicide at the beach.

He was assessed by GP and forensic medical examiner, Dr Gillian Hodgson, after she was called to a police station in Middlesbrough following his arrest last June.

Dr Hodgson described Fathi as "co-operative and calm" and told a jury at Teesside Crown Court yesterday: "I thought he had no sign of a mental disorder."

The 22-year-old had been detained under the Mental Health Act because of his bizarre comments, but Dr Hodgson said she was content for him to be discharged.

A month later, Fathi stabbed to death fellow Iranian national Romano Taddi after breaking into his home in Hartlepool and waiting for him to return from a night out.

Mr Taddi survived the initial knife attack, but was killed when Fathi struck again the next morning after the two men had dozed in the lounge of the Kimberley Street house.

Fathi, who was arrested after fleeing in a stolen car and crashing near Newcastle Airport, gave police detailed accounts of what happened in the run-up to the killing.

But the jury heard that the failed asylum-seeker said there were gaps in his memory, and he repeatedly told detectives: "From time to time, I have mental episodes."

Fathi said he could remember stabbing Mr Taddi to the neck and close to his heart, but when asked where else, he replied: "I don't know. I have not seen it. I was in another world."

During one of his eight lengthy interviews, Fathi told detectives: "It got darker. I seem to have lost myself. Very suddenly, a particular condition came over me."

Fathi told police he "said 100 sorrys" after the initial attack, and repeatedly offered to take Mr Taddi to hospital and hand himself in to police, but his pleas were rejected.

He said the two men appeared to have patched up their differences, but the next morning, he said the injured Mr Taddi started to argue again and began to fight.

"He angered me and I lost my cool again," Fathi told detectives. "Up until that point I was cooled down and I was intending to leave the scene, but by doing that he started my condition again."

In a later interview, he said he was disgusted with himself for attacking Mr Taddi, who had housed him and found him a job, and added: "I could not believe that this is me who has done that."

Fathi, formerly of Grange Road, Hartlepool, denies murder, but the jury has been told he is pleading guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The trial continues.