Murder-obsessed killer knifed nurse

Cheryl Moss, 33, was stabbed and slashed 72 times as she stood in parkland at the back of St George's hospital, Hornchurch, Essex, in April, last year.

Stuart Harling, 19, a trainee accountant of Rainham, Essex, had claimed he was not guilty because of diminished responsibility. But an Old Bailey jury rejected his theatrical attempts to convince the court he was mad. This included throwing his papers out of the dock, shouting insults at the judge and objecting to jurors, claiming - among other things - that they were assassins or had grudges against him.

Harling spent hours researching serial killers on the internet and built up a killing kit by bidding on a knife, black witch's wig and clothes on eBay. He fantasised about rape and wrote a blog about killing a black woman on Upminster Bridge.

When it was time for him to turn his sick fantasy into reality, Mrs Moss became his unfortunate victim when she left the hospital grounds to smoke.

Making sure his large hunting knife glinted in the sunlight, he ambushed her from the woods and launched a "frenzied and ferocious" attack. He left her lifeless body crouched on the ground as he ran off to change his clothes and leave them in a sports bag near a river.

But Harling made the mistake of leaving the envelope in which the knife had been addressed to his home in the bag. He was arrested the following day at the house where he lived with his parents and sister.

Harling, who had 10 GCSEs, told a prison officer he killed Mrs Moss because he was "bored" and said he might do it again, the court heard.

After his outburst at the beginning of the trial, Harling chose to remain in the cells. But he agreed to give evidence and reduced Mrs Moss's husband Peter to tears when he said the killing had "kinda ruined my day".

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."