Samurai killer free just eight years after his attack on MP

Robert Ashman, 57, stabbed Andrew Pennington six times as he tried to protect Liberal Democrat Nigel Jones, now a peer, in his constituency office in January 2000.

Sentencing the father of two at the time, a High Court judge said Ashman was so disturbed she could not foresee a time when he would be safely released.

Injured: Lord Jones with the sword used by Robert Ashman (below)

But the former engineer is back on the streets after psychiatrists deemed him fit to be let out.

He is now living in a "halfway house" in Bristol, just 35 miles away from the scene of the killing in Cheltenham.

Although he is supervised by police and has to obey a curfew, he is free to go out alone during the day.

Yesterday, Lord Jones, 60, said he feels no anger over the release. "The experts have said that he's safe, so we will see," he added.

"I'm not angry. I got over the anger period a long time ago. The tragedy is that Andrew Pennington is not here to walk the streets.

"You either keep people locked up which costs the taxpayer a lot of money or you try to treat them.

"What kind of society are we living in? It was Winston Churchill who said no one is beyond redemption."

Asked if he had forgiven Ashman, Lord Jones added: "I think I'm some distance from that."

The peer needed 57 stitches to his hand while Mr Pennington, 39, was killed after he tried to fight Ashman off with an electric fire.

Ashman later claimed he had carried out the attack because his MP was not doing enough to help him after he lost his job, got divorced and was declared bankrupt.

During the court case, the MP described how Ashman had brandished the sword above his head like a cartoon character from Masters of the Universe and said he believed that Ashman was intent on killing him.

Psychiatrists who examined Ashman found he had a severe mental disorder and suffered from delusions and a persecution complex.

His imagined persecutors included Lloyds TSB, Cheltenham Borough Council and the chief constable of Gloucestershire.

After the killing, he was initially sent to Broadmoor maximum secure hospital. However, when he was sentenced in September 2003, he was transferred to Kneesworth House in Royston, Hertfordshire, a medium secure unit, after he admitted manslaughter and was convicted of attempted murder.

Sentencing him, Mrs Justice Hallett said: "I have made no secret of my reservations in making a hospital order in which you will be detained in a medium secure hospital.

"The fact that you are quiet now does not mean you are cured and of minimal risk. I fear that you will never be cured.

"I cannot foresee a time when you will be safely released into the community."

Lord Jones suffered two heart attacks in 2002 and later stood down as an MP before being made a Lib Dem peer.