A FORMER soldier who tried to saw off his elderly mother's head could be released in four years.

Steven Parker stabbed 71-year-old Jean Charlton 15 times in the neck, head and body before he tried to decapitate her.

The 44-year-old pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at Newcastle Crown Court shortly after the killing, and was expected to be sentenced to remain in hospital under the mental health act.

But, after assessment, experts agreed his chronic schizophrenia was not suitable for treatment in hospital.

Parker was brought back to court yesterday, where Judge David Hodson sentenced him to life imprisonment with a tariff of 12 years.

He has already been in custody for two years, which means he could be free in four years.

Parker, who displays no physical distress for what he has done, has been diagnosed as "having the capacity to cause serious harm to others".

Parker had drunk five pints of lager at Washington Galleries, Washington, before launching the attack as his mother lay on the settee watching TV.

Mrs Charlton, who had three sons, died from haemorrhaging due to multiple wounds.

Parker had lived with the pensioner in Berwick, Oxclose, Washington.

The court heard that, after the killing on August 17, 2002, Parker told police: "I just felt really angry, but I wasn't screaming or ranting or anything."

Judge Hodson told Parker during the sentencing hearing yesterday: "The public must be properly protected as far as possible from the risk you pose to the public."