A mentally ill man who was allowed to diagnose himself in hospital stabbed his former partner to death just hours after being discharged.

Craig Sexton, 31, stabbed Lynda Lovatt more than 40 times and then slit her throat after turning up at her home in the hope of collecting a father's day card from their two children.

The youngsters, James, seven, and Amy, four, slept through the sustained attack on their mother at the home she once shared with Sexton in South Shields, South Tyneside, on June 18 last year.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how Sexton, who had a history of mental illness, had promised hospital staff on the day of the killing he was not "depressed, neurotic nor psychotic" and was able to walk out of the hospital, onto a ferry and into to his victim's home.

As his two children slept upstairs Sexton viciously attacked their mother with his fists, before using two knives to inflict multiple stab wounds and then finally cut her throat when she was dead.

Sexton then took his childrens' pictures off the living room wall where the killing took place, went upstairs to look at them as they slept, and then called his father to say what he had done.

Prosecutor John Evans told the court how the night before the killing Sexton had been seen by mental health nurses from the crisis assessment and treatment service who said although he was experiencing a low mood there was "nothing to suggest he intended harm to anyone else".

But the following morning Sexton was playing Queen's hit "Who Wants to Live Forever?" on repeat and rocking back and forwards. The CAT team were called out by his family again who said although his symptoms might indicate mild depression, did not match the criteria for severe or moderate depression and meant he was a low risk of harm to himself or his partner.

But Sexton's family, who knew he had been playing-down his symptoms, were unhappy with the diagnosis and called an ambulance to take Sexton to Rake Lane hospital in North Tyneside.

He was seen again by psychiatric nurses who he promised he would meet again the following day and "guaranteed his own safety" in the meantime.

He told staff he was "neither depressed, neurotic nor psychotic, rather upset at the end of the relationship with his partner" and was then free to leave.

The court heard how Sexton had been unable to cope with the breakdown of their 11-year-relationship and had subjected her to abuse via text messages and mobile telephone calls.

On the day of the killing he was hoping to collect father's day cards from the children, even though Ms Lovatt had warned him not to come.

An inquiry has been launched into the background and his treatment before the killing.

Sexton, of North Shields, was initially charged with murder but prosecutors accepted his plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter with diminished responsibility after psychiatrists agreed he was suffering an abnormality of mind at the time of the slaying.

Defence barrister Toby Hedworth told the court how Sexton wishes to express "sorrow" to Lynda's family for what he has done. Mr Hedworth said Sexton "does not believe that he deserves to live" because of his actions.

But Mr Hedworth added: "It was the view of the nurses he was a low risk of self harm or of harm to his partner. "That was notwithstanding the family members present telling the nurses that the defendant was not being frank with them.

"He was pretending to be better than he actually was. "The family were still not happy and called an ambulance so he was taken to hospital.

"There, nurses who eventually saw him again accepted his own guarantees he was not depressed, neurotic or psychotic.

"One has to say, although not as a medical person, that it might be considered inappropriate to give the person who has been said by others to be suffering from a mental illness the right to make his own diagnosis.

"On one view that is what occurred that evening."

Judge David Hodson made an interim hospital order under the Mental Health Act so Sexton by fully assessed and start receiving treatment for his illness.

Mr Hedworth said: "If the killing was as a result of a mental illness susceptible to treatment it would not be appropriate for him to be dealt with by way of a prison sentence."

Sexton will be taken to a secure hospital for assessment and will be back before the court in 12 weeks.