A Merseyside man who stabbed and beat his 70-year-old mother to death with a golf club has been given an indefinite hospital order.

Graham Daly, 45, admitted manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility after killing Phyllis Daly at the family home on Clent Road in Maghull on 13 July last year. He was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday afternoon after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing.

Mrs Daly was found dead with significant injuries shortly after 1pm that day, and her death was formally pronounced at 1.24pm. Daly, a former shop security guard who had been living with his parents, was arrested the same afternoon in the beer garden of a pub in Aughton and detained under the Mental Health Act. He has remained in a secure hospital since the incident.

Liverpool Crown Court heard Daly had been suffering from schizophrenia with symptoms of bipolar disorder, which profoundly distorted his sense of reality. Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Hasanen Al-Taiar told the court the abnormality of mental functioning had directly contributed to the fatal attack.

Judge Neil Flewitt KC imposed a hospital order under sections 37 and 41 of the Mental Health Act, meaning Daly will be detained in a secure psychiatric facility until it is deemed safe for him to be released. The judge noted that while cannabis use may have worsened Daly's symptoms, it did not fully explain the attack.

Daly had originally been charged with murder but denied that offence, pleading guilty instead to the lesser charge of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, a plea the prosecution accepted. There will now be no trial, and the hospital order formally concludes the criminal proceedings.

[Source: britbrief.co.uk](https://britbrief.co.uk/crime/sentencing/son-gets-hospital-order-for-killing-mother-with-knife-and-golf-club.html) | [Source: particle.news](https://particle.news/story/son-given-hospital-order-after-killing-his-mother-in-maghull)