Schizophrenic jailed for life after killing young father

A violent psychopath who killed a young father four months after walking free from court over another brutal attack was jailed for life today.

Colin Welsh, 42, was told he must serve at least 12 years in prison as a judge described him as "clearly dangerous".

Welsh, a paranoid schizophrenic, was fined in March 2008 for beating a fellow student at St Andrews University so badly that he needed facial reconstruction surgery.

He was left free to stab cabinet maker Elliot Guy, 27, in the neck at a party in Tufnell Park, north London, in July 2008, the Old Bailey heard.

Judge Brian Barker, the Common Serjeant of London, said the decision of Cupar Sheriff Court not to send him to jail over the earlier attack was "merciful".

He told Welsh: "The fact that you escaped custody and were sent down from St Andrews should have been a significant turning point.

"Nothing I have been told indicates that you sought any help for your illness and it is the greatest pity that you did not."

Relatives of Mr Guy, described by his partner as a "wonderful, warm, gentle and paternal man" wept in court as the sentence was passed.

Welsh, of Tottenham, north London, pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility at an earlier hearing.