A PARANOID schizophrenic woman, who randomly stabbed two women on Bradford streets has been detained indefinitely in a secure hospital.

Andrea Woodhead, 52, attacked her victims within 20 minutes in March this year.

One of them was pushing her baby in a pram, Bradford Crown Court was told yesterday.

Woodhead, of Daisy Hill Back Lane, Daisy Hill, Bradford, who was charged with unlawful wounding, assault causing actual bodily harm and possessing a bladed article in a public place, was found to be unfit to plead because of her mental illness.

But a jury, in a trial of issue, unanimously decided that she had committed the acts.

Judge David Hatton QC said he was satisfied that Woodhead was suffering from a mental disorder and it was appropriate to detain her in hospital under section 37 of the Mental Health Act.

He added: "I am satisfied, having regard to the nature of these offences, the antecedents of this lady, and the risk of further offences if she is at large, that it is necessary for the protection of the public from serious harm, that there be a restriction order under section 41 of the Act."

The two women, Kauser Nasreen Khan and Hayley Caldwell, both suffered stab wounds to their upper back from a six-inch-bladed kitchen knife. They were treated at Bradford Royal Infirmary but not detained.

The attacks happened in Scotchman Road, Heaton, and Keighley Road, Frizinghall, on the morning of Friday, March 4.

Prosecutor Clare Walsh read statements to the jury from the two victims.

Kauser Khan said that at 9.40am she was walking to work, in Scotchman Road when she heard somebody running up behind her and felt an impact to her shoulder.

She turned to see a woman holding a large kitchen knife. The woman did not speak but looked angry. She then turned and walked away.

A passing motorist stopped and rang for an ambulance. Ms Khan was treated for a two centimetre wound to her left upper back.

The second victim was walking in Keighley Road, Frizinghall, near to the retail park, at 10am, with her three-month-old daughter in a pram, when she noticed a woman in a red raincoat walking towards her.

They passed each other but Ms Caldwell immediately felt a sharp stabbing pain to her left shoulder. She turned to see the woman staring at her and holding the knife.

Ms Caldwell began screaming and her attacker turned and started walking towards Shipley.

The victim said she was terrified and scared for her daughter's safety. She suffered a superficial wound to the back of her shoulder.

Police were alerted and Woodhead was arrested near the junction with Beamsley Road. She was still in possession of the knife.

In a Victim Personal Statement read to the court, Ms Khan said she had been informed the incident was being treated as a hate crime, as both victims were wearing head scarves and she had stabbed two visibly Muslim women.

But she had been helped by hearing about the mental health of the attacker and knowing that she was "just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

The court was told Woodhead had been kept at New Hall prison but was transferred to Newton Lodge secure hospital in Wakefield after she was visited by a psychiatrist who assessed her as "profoundly psychotic."

Her treating psychologist, Dr Isaura Gairin, told the court Woodhead suffered from severe paranoid schizophrenia and her condition had been resistant to treatment.

She had suffered for three decades and symptoms included paranoid delusions, hallucinations and hearing voices and was unlikely to recover in the foreseeable future.

She had refused entry to her home to community home workers who were concerned she wasn't taking her prescriptive drugs.

On one occasion a social worker found a BB gun, hammer and screwdrivers in a drawer.

Barrister Stephen Wood, representing Woodhead's interests, said she was extremely ill.

He said people had been rendomly stabbed as they walked along the street, one while with a very young child, and there had been episodes of violence in the past.

Mr Wood added: "At the time she was living 'independently.' It seems she wasn't taking her medication. Everybody is of the opinion this lady had a significant deterioration in an already fragile mental state."

West Yorkshire Police confirmed the attack on Ms Khan had originally been recorded as a hate crime but the Crown Prosecution Service decided there was insufficient evidence to bring such a charge.