Vicar's killer 'turned into violent monster' by addiction

Father Paul Bennett, 59, who was profoundly deaf, was killed in a vicious daylight attack by Geraint Evans as he tried to protect his family.

The attack occured outside the vicarage at St Fagan's Church, Trecynon, Aberdare, South Wales, on March 14.

His horrified wife fought desperately to fend off Evans as he knifed the grandfather repeatedly in the head and throat.

Evans, who had been spying on the vicar for several weeks, then told Mrs Bennett: "I have done what I had to do", before calmly walking over to a bench and waiting for the police to arrive.

Before officers could make it to the nightmarish scene, the vicar's elderly parents arrived on a family visit to see their 59-year-old son's lifeless body in the grounds of the 18th century church.

He had been stabbed 22 times with a seven inch combat knife.

Scroll down for more ...

Evans, 24, who believed he was the anti-Christ and lived in a flat overlooking the vicarage, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility at Cardiff Crown Court on Tuesday.

The court heard that Evans suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and a personality disorder, and had used cannabis and inhaled lighter fuel since his early teens.

But he had never been under the care of psychiatric services until his arrest for the killing.

He was sentenced to indefinite detention at Ashworth Special Hospital, a high-security psychiatric unit in Merseyside, after admitting the killing.

His 47-year-old mother, Caroline, claimed Evans had inhaled the contents of 29 bottles of lighter fuel before the killing, according to the Daily Mirror.

"Geraint's not evil. He's not a cold-blooded killer. My son is a very ill man who needs help. The lighter fuel - it turned him into a violent monster," she said.

The court heard that Evans's mental problems once led to him trying to commit suicide by slashing his own throat.

His mother went on: "He clearly wasn't well when he tried to commit suicide, so why did no-one give him the treatment he needed?"

"I blame myself more than anyone - a mother should see the signs. I've failed my little boy."

Scroll down for more ...

The family of Father Bennett said after the sentencing that the legal system had let them down.

Julie Hanchet, the cousin of Father Bennett's widow, Georgina, said: "Someone must have known how disturbed this man was and could have intervened. Where were the mental health services?"

"We need to know where the failings have been. We ask that an inquiry is called and persons be held accountable. Our family needs answers."

"This was a premeditated, planned and savage attack. We feel that the legal system has failed Paul and ourselves."