'Reclusive' care home worker obsessed with TV killer Dexter stabbed his mother 53 times and left her to bleed to death after they rowed about his cannabis smoking

A care home worker obsessed with TV serial killer Dexter has been jailed after he admitted murdering his mother after the pair had rowed about his cannabis smoking. Mark Howe repeatedly stabbed and slashed Katrina Wardle in the face, mouth, neck, chest and arms before leaving her to bleed to death on her bedroom floor in an 'appallingly savage' attack. A judge said the brutal assault was 'akin to torture'. The 21-year-old, who a court heard 'lived in a fantasy world', attacked Mrs Wardle, 48, at the family home in St Matthew’s, Leicester, in the early hours of July 16 last year.

Leicester Crown Court was told Howe was 'a recluse' obsessed with US TV series Dexter, which features a fictional police worker, Dexter Morgan, leading a double life as a serial knife-wielding killer. He used a photograph of Dexter Morgan with a blood-splattered face as his own Facebook profile picture - and had searched ‘Dexter’s kill knife’ on the internet in the run-up to the killing. Judge Mr Justice Haddon-Cave sentenced Howe to life in prison, and told him he would have to serve at least 21 years and six months before he could be considered for release. He added: 'You attacked your mother with appalling savagery, causing more than 53 separate wounds. One can only imagine the horror of her realisation at what was being done to her by her own son. 'The sheer brutality and ferocity of the attack, which must have lasted some minutes, was akin to torturing her. 'She curled up in a foetal position, trying to protect herself.' The court heard Howe carried out the 'horrifying act' with a 12-inch knife, the tip of which was bent by the force used.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2539838/Reclusive-care-home-worker-obsessed-TV-killer-Dexter-stabbed-mother-53-times-left-bleed-death-rowed-cannabis-smoking.html