A MAN accused of murdering his parents at their home in Skipton has pleaded guilty to manslaughter due to diminished responsibility.

David Taylor, 36, was charged with murdering John and Beverley Taylor, both 66, of Regent Crescent, on December 21 last year.

The couple were found at their home following a call to the police.

He appeared before Bradford Crown Court today via video link from Rampton Secure Hospital, where he pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter due to diminished responsibility.

His pleas were accepted by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Jonathan Sandiford QC, for the Crown, said psychiatric reports from two doctors had agreed that a defence of diminished responsibility was available to Taylor.

He added that Taylor, of Regent Crescent, Skipton, had suffered from paranoid schizophrenia for a number of years and there was evidence he had sought medical assistance the day before his parents were killed.

He may have been unable to obtain the prescription that was given to him, however.

The sentence was adjourned for a month to allow both psychiatric and probation reports to be completed.

Judge Jonathan Rose outlined the three options open to him upon sentencing: a custodial sentence; a hospital order under the Mental Health Act; and a hybrid order of the two, allowing Taylor to be transferred to prison should treatment be sufficient.

Judge Rose also expressed his condolences to the Taylor family who were sitting in the courtroom.

The sentencing hearing will take place on July 13.

At the previous hearing it emerged that Taylor, who was previously on remand in prison, had been moved to Rampton Secure Hospital on March 31.

An inquest into the deaths was opened and adjourned at a hearing at The Old Courtroom, Northallerton, on January 6.

Opening the hearing, North Yorkshire and York senior coroner Jon Heath explained the provisional circumstances in relation to the deaths are that both Mr and Mrs Taylor were found at their home address on December 21 following a call to police.

The provisional cause of death is stab wounds.

The inquests were suspended pending further investigation by the police and a full hearing will be heard at a later date.

A double funeral for the couple was held at St Stephen's Church, in Skipton, on January 13. Mourners spilled out into the church grounds when all seating and standing room was filled as the services took place.

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