Teenage 'fantasist' jailed for life for nurse murder

Trainee accountant and former altar boy Stuart Harling must serve at least 20 years for murdering a nurse as she took a cigarette break.

Stuart Harling, 19, stabbed Cheryl Moss more than 70 times in a frenzied attack after spending months playing violent computer games and researching how to kill.

He picked her at random after spotting her having a cigarette on a secluded path in the grounds of the hospital where she worked.

"I went out that day with the knife and other stuff because I was bored," Harling told the court.

"I remember stabbing her in the back. I only stopped because my wig fell off. I was kinda surprised when I heard she was dead. It doesn't really bother me. I'd do it again."

He then added, flippantly: "It kinda ruined my day."

Harling read about murder hours before setting upon Mrs Moss, 33, as she took her morning break.

He learned killing skills from a U.S. marines training manual and made "dry runs" in Hornchurch Country Park in Essex as he plotted to become the town's first serial killer.

Psychiatrist Dr Philip Joseph told the Old Bailey he could not think of a "more dangerous teenager in the country" and police said they had no doubt Harling would have committed more murders if he had not been caught.

He spent ten months buying items for his "murderer's kit" on eBay, including a hunting knife, leather gloves, sunglasses, jacket and wig.

On April 6 last year, Harling put on the wig and glasses and took the knife before going out to search for a victim.

Mrs Moss did not even have time to scream as he knifed her outside St George's Hospital.

He dumped his kit in the park and within an hour was logging on to see news flashes about the murder.

Hospital staff found Mrs Moss after the alarm was raised by a dog walker.

But Harling had inadvertently left his address in his discarded murder kit and was arrested the following day at his parents' home, where he lived with them and his 16-year-old sister.

He denied murder but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

He claimed he had the mental illness Asperger's syndrome and said the killing was the first part of a plan to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea in a military coup.

But the jury convicted him of murder by a majority of ten to one.

Psychiatrist Dr Andrew Payne told the court: "He seemed to want infamy. He wanted media attention where he was portrayed as the victim."

A keen boy Scout and a bright pupil, Harling became obsessed with violent computer games in his early teens.

After leaving school, he gained three accounting qualifications but did not bother to do the work experience he needed to complete his training.

Instead he shut himself away with his computer, building his murderous virtual world. He spent days on the Internet, talking to paedophiles in chatrooms and researching infamous murderers such as Dennis Nielsen.

He fantasised about rape and wrote a blog about killing a black woman.

Harling, of Rainham, Essex, revealed he felt nothing when he killed Mrs Moss - as if she was a computer animation.

He told psychiatrists he dreamed of becoming a serial killer after seeing a documentary on "Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez, who claimed 13 victims in Los Angeles. In jail before his trial, he told an officer he killed Mrs Moss because he was bored.

He was not in court for the verdict, having been kept in his cell for most of the trial after he hurled abuse at the judge and prosecutor Brian Altman.

He told Mr Altman he would "cut off his head and s*** down the hole" then threw documents from the dock.

Mrs Moss's husband Peter, 42, ran out of court in tears after the verdict.

He later paid tribute to his wife, who cared for the elderly at St George's for ten years. In a statement, he said: "This evil person should never be released.

"True justice should be life for a life, and until this deterrent is used it is unlikely that violent crime and murder will subside."

After the trial, Detective Chief Inspector John Macdonald said: "I have no doubt that if Harling had not been arrested, he would have gone on to commit other murders."

Mrs Moss's husband Peter said: "We are glad that this evil person was caught quickly so that no one else had to lose their life, as this was very likely."

Brian Altman, prosecuting, said: "This had been a most frenzied and ferocious murderous attack. She had been brutally stabbed to death.

It robbed the community of a vibrant and contributing member with so much of her life in front of her."

"He was just a cold-blooded killer who acted out his fantasy.

"She turned out to be the tragic, unfortunate person who the defendant came across that day.

"She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." He added: "Stuart Harling led the life of a loner, a fantasist. He lived in a virtual world.

"Enthused, influenced and fuelled by the fantasy world in which he lived, he developed a plan to murder someone, which he then executed in a chillingly cold-blooded way."

Harling was sentenced in his absence after he refused to go into court.

The judge, Common Serjeant of London Brian Barker, said Harling said there was an indication that others might be hurt if he was forced to go into the dock.

Judge Barker said he would send Harling's evidence and papers in the case to the Parole Board.

Harling, the court heard, had told a prison officer that he could kill again if he was bored.