A PARANOID schizophrenic who believed his girlfriend was poisoning his food has admitted strangling the mother-of-one and hiding her body in a downstairs cupboard.

Gary Fletcher, 35, told police he believed defenceless Nicola Haworth was plotting against him at the home they shared in Burnley.

After being arrested over another offence, Fletcher confessed to the killing leading police to search the couple’s Wilton Street home.

Preston Crown Court heard Ms Haworth, 33, was found by police under a quilt with a bin liner over her head, ligatures around her neck and her feet and hands bound. A child was also found in the property covered in vomit but she was unharmed.

Judge Mark Brown, Honorary Recorder of Preston, said Fletcher presented a serious risk to the public and sentenced him to be detained in a psychiatric hospital.

Fletcher will only be released when a tribunal panel decides he no longer presents an immediate threat to the public.

Prosecutor Gordon Cole said 8.10am on July 22, last year, Fletcher was stopped by police in Holmby Road, Burnley. He was found with a large knife and arrested. Mr Cole said: “He was cautioned and whilst waiting for a vehicle to take him to the police station the the defendant went on to say ‘I’ve done something worse. I’ve killed my girlfriend’.

“When he was asked to explain he went on to say that he had ‘strangled her at home last night’.”

Mr Cole said Fletcher, who spent one year in a psychiatric hospital when he was 19, repeated the comments to a second officer saying: “I’ve strangled her, she’s in the cupboard.”

After the confession, police forced their way into the couple’s house and they heard a child crying upstairs.

Ms Haworth’s body was found in a cupboard under the stairs. The edges of the cupboard had tissue stuffed in the frame and there was a quilt on the floor.

Ms Haworth was pronounced dead at the scene.

A pathologist stated the cause of death was asphyxiation.

The child was found in an upstairs cot.

When interviewed by detectives Fletcher, who had been a drug user since the age of 14, admitted killing Ms Haworth in a prepared statement, the court heard.

He said that he would use alcohol and cannabis to cope with ‘episodes of extreme paranoia, anxiety and severe depression’ and in the months leading up to Ms Haworth’s death his symptoms had increased. By then he was using crack cocaine on a daily basis, as well as the legal high ‘super coke’.

Mr Cole said: “He had paranoid ideas about Nicola Haworth. He believed there were people in the house talking about him with Nicola. He believed that Nicola was putting thoughts and images into his head and was poisoning his food. He recalled placing his arm around Nicola’s neck from behind and squeezing.”

Mr Cole said that Fletcher had taken more drugs and looked at Ms Haworth’s body on the floor and thought he could see her face moving and believed she was still trying to control his mind.

After assessment, two doctors agreed Fletcher, who appeared at the court over a video link, had been suffering with mental health-related illnesses at the time of the offence and had diminished responsibility.

Defending, Paul Reid QC said: “This is a massively tragic case.

“The defendant wishes to say sorry. It may sound very hollow and carry nothing in the overall scheme of things but he wants me to say it on his behalf and I do.”

Fletcher, who was jailed for four years in 2007 for a robbery in which he violently beat an elderly man, also pleaded guilty to a charge of child neglect.

Judge Brown added: “No life can be restored and nor can its loss ever be measured by a sentence of the court.

“There is no doubt that this was a dreadful killing and that Nicola Haworth was an entirely innocent victim.

“You have a severe enduring mental illness that was directly connected to you committing this terrible offence.”

Speaking after the hearing, Robert Haworth, Nicola’s brother, said: “Nicola Joanne was a very good person. Not just a sister but a mother and aunty.

“She was a very, very beautiful and humble lady. She is dearly missed by myself and the rest of the family.

“He has taken away my best friend, sister and role model to a lot of people who cared for her dearly.

“Life is never going to be the same without you.”

Det Chief Insp Joanne McHugh said: “While we may never know the full circumstances which led to Nicola Haworth’s death, Gary Fletcher’s actions were cold, callous and cruel.

“He is clearly a dangerous individual whose shocking behaviour robbed a family of a loved one.”