'Dangerous' son who stabbed dad to death believing he was a robot is sent to mental hospital

Jermaine Thomas, 24, was on bail for stabbing a housemate in the neck when he visited Berris Thomas, 62, at his home in Tettenhall Road, Wolverhampton, in July 2021.

After being refused money for a taxi by Berris, Jermaine knifed his father 10 times in the face and neck before leaving him for dead in a sweltering flat where he would be discovered days later.

Jermaine, from Handsworth, Birmingham, then stole his father's bank card, watch, pendant and Mercedes, which he drove the wrong way up the M6 slip road before abandoning it and wandering off with a beer in his hand.

He then used his friend's sim card to phone family members to say he had killed his dad, but did not phone police who arrested him shortly after.

Under interview and subsequent psychiatric evaluation Thomas' severe delusions and the regular voices in his head came to light.

After two years in a secure mental health unit, away from drink and drugs, doctors revealed he still believes a disabled man gave a cookie which turned him into a robot and all his family into robots, his dad being fitted with a mechanical pacemaker convinced him even more Berris was not human.

Thomas pleaded guilty to manslaughter with diminished responsibility, unlawful wounding for stabbing his flat mate in the neck, the crime he was on bail for when he killed his father and racially aggravated threatening behaviour after he abused an arresting officer.

Sentencing Thomas at Wolverhampton Crown Court, Mr Justice Pepperall described him as "a very dangerous man" who the public needed to be protected from after listing a litany of crimes stretching back to when he used to beat his mother and sister as a teenager.

"You were psychotic at the time of the offences, you were hearing voices, were a paranoid schizophrenic whose delusions including believing a man had given you a cookie which had turned you and your family into robots.

"However, you did know you had killed your father, a human and not an inanimate object, a robot. When sentencing a dangerous mentally ill offender the public has to protected."

He added: "Jermaine Thomas you must be returned to a secure mental heath hospital without limit of time, you will be staying in hospital as long as necessary."

Berris sister Pauline Thomas paid tribute to her brother who was a kind and popular man who had been overjoyed when he became a father to Jermaine.

Addressing Jermaine in her victim statement Pauline told him he had caused tremendous pain which could not be healed.