Description
A psychotic rapist who stabbed a seven-year-old child he believed was the devil has been sentenced to indefinite detention at a secure hospital.
Byron Stubbs, 25, of no fixed abode, attacked the child and two women with a kitchen knife at a house in Sunderland after a three-day alcohol and cocaine binge, Newcastle Crown Court heard. He also raped a woman several years earlier and only admitted it after fearing police would find the footage he had filmed on his phone.
Stubbs admitted attempted murder, intentional wounding and rape. He had a long history of severe mental illness, which he worsened through alcohol and drug use, prosecutor Jolyn Perks said.
After three days without sleep, he stabbed the child in the stomach, then attacked the two women who intervened. Police found Stubbs and the house covered in blood. The child suffered bone-deep wounds to the hand and arms; the stomach injury could have been fatal if any deeper. One woman was stabbed through the ear, the other in the arms and hands.
The child’s mother said the “horrific” attack had changed their family’s lives forever. The previously “happy little” child now “freaked out” if anyone stood behind them and was “petrified” of knives. She feared lifelong mental health issues.
The rape victim said she had once been “bubbly, outgoing, loud and adventurous” but was now “a completely different person” who was “anxious and jumpy in every situation”. Stubbs initially denied the rape but admitted it when he realised police had his phone and might discover the video.
Since the attacks, Stubbs – previously sectioned under the Mental Health Act – has been diagnosed with schizophrenia involving delusions and auditory hallucinations about God and the devil.
A psychiatrist told the court he would remain a high risk of serious harm even if successfully treated, if he continued to drink and take drugs. Other experts noted his “long history of delusional beliefs”, “high levels of violence and aggression” and domestic abuse of multiple partners.
Stubbs had a suspended sentence for blackmail in 2020 and a caution for battery in 2022.
Judge Robert Adams said Stubbs was a “dangerous offender” who posed a “significant risk of causing serious harm” and needed “intensive and enduring” treatment. The risks to the public were “very great” and would “remain so for a very long time”. A hospital order with ongoing psychiatric care would protect the public better than prison, where he would have received 15 years plus a four-year extended licence.
Stubbs must sign the sex offenders register indefinitely.