The man who caused a major emergency when holed up in his Bradford flat threatening to blow it up is a convicted killer who axed a grandmother to death, it can now be revealed.

James Callaghan was sentenced to an indefinite Hospital Order at Hull Crown Court on October 26, 2009, after admitting manslaughter and unlawful wounding.

Callaghan, then 18, went on a drunken rampage after losing at computer games. He left his home in Hull armed with an axe and a long-bladed knife after downing a bottle of vodka.

The court heard that he struck a passer-by on the head with the axe, terrified a cyclist and tried to smash his way into a couple's flat.

He then forced his way into the home of Irene Robertson, 65, and killed her.

Callaghan, who did not know her, struck her repeatedly on the head with the axe, chopped off a finger and stabbed her multiple times.

He then wrote a message to his mother on the flat walls and a mirror saying he was sorry.

After his arrest Callaghan was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He told psychiatrists that he had been hearing voices in his head urging him to kill and began drinking heavily to cope.

He admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and unlawful wounding and was sent indefinitely to a high security mental hospital.

After his release, he was convicted of threatening behaviour and criminal damage in Bradford in 2019 and sentenced to a community order by the city’s magistrates.