"Stockwell Stangler" murder conviction quashed

LONDON (Reuters) - "Stockwell Strangler" Kenneth Erskine who throttled seven pensioners to death in south London more than 20 years ago won an appeal on Tuesday to have his murder conviction reduced to manslaughter.

The Court of Appeal agreed to quash the murder conviction on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Erskine's case centred on fresh medical evidence that he was suffering from an "abnormality" of the mind which substantially diminished his responsibility for the crimes, the Press Association reported.

He was 24 when sentenced for a minimum of 40 years in 1988 for strangling seven male and female victims, aged between 67 and 94, in their homes in south London in 1986.

"We are satisfied that the convictions for murder were unsafe," said Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge.

"It is overwhelmingly clear that, at the time when the appellant appeared at trial, there was unequivocal contemporaneous evidence that his mental responsibility for his actions at the time of the killing was substantially impaired."

The court imposed a hospital order on Erskine for an indefinite period in the "interests of public safety."

He said all the medical experts agreed Erskine was suffering from severe schizophrenia at the time of the offences.

Psychiatrist Dr Andrew Horne, a consultant at Broadmoor Hospital for 20 years, said that clinical schizophrenia would have diminished Erskine's responsibility for his actions to a "massive degree."