A KNIFE-wielding attacker who struck a shop assistant on the head with a jar of hot dog sausages has been detained in a mental hospital.

Phillip Silson was ill with schizophrenia and had been drinking heavily when he turned violent in Keighley on February 15, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Armed with a kitchen knife, he assaulted James Wrigley with the hot dog jar in the Home Bargains shop in Alston Retail Park before waving the weapon around.

Silson, 45, of Lister Street, Keighley, then damaged a Volkswagen Golf belonging to Aksar Ali, on Dalton Lane, before brandishing the knife at police officers.

He was sprayed with CS gas to detain him, prosecutor Andrea Parnham told the court.

Silson did £100 damage to the Golf in the drunken vandalism, it emerged.

He pleaded guilty to causing Mr Wrigley actual bodily harm, criminal damage to the car and having a kitchen knife with him in Dalton Lane.

The court heard that Silson had 29 offences on his criminal record.

He was produced in court from hospital after being seen by two psychiatrists who found that he was suffering from a treatable mental illness.

Silson’s lawyer, Tahir Hanif, said he accepted the findings of the psychiatrists who sought an order under the Mental Health Act.

The court heard that Silson was a placid and gentle man when receiving treatment and not under the influence of alcohol or illegal substances.

Judge Jonathan Rose made a Hospital Order that meant he would be detained while receiving treatment.

He told him: “You have a very bad record for criminal offences and these new offences are very, very serious.

“You would be going to prison if you were not very sick with serious mental illness.”

Silson would not be released from hospital until the medical authorities were satisfied it was safe to let him go.

“You are going back to hospital until you are well enough to be released and the public is safe from you,” Judge Rose told Silson.