'Voices in head' killer sentenced

12:29pm Thursday 17th April 2008

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A mentally ill man who strangled a woman to death in a Rochdale hospital has today been sentenced.

Telahum Tedola, aged 27, was a patient at Birch Hill Hospital when he killed fellow patient Rosalind McManus by strangling her with a belt.

He pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility on February 7. A judge has now ordered he be detained on an indefinite mental health order.

Rosalind was found strangled in a ward at the hospital on August 13 last year.

Staff alerted police and a very short time later Tedola, whose room was up the corridor from where Rosalind was killed, was arrested on suspicion of murder.

He admitted to killing Rosalind straight away.

Due to his mental illness Tedola said that he had heard voices in his head saying Rosalind had been telling staff he was a spy. They said he had to kill her.

Tedola saw Rosalind walk past his room towards the day room down the corridor. He took a belt out of his wardrobe, walked down the corridor, put the belt around Rosalind's neck and pulled it until she collapsed.

He then walked back towards his room, telling a nurse on the way that he had killed Rosalind.

Tedola had been admitted to the hospital just a week before he killed Rosalind, who was a long-term patient at the hospital.

Senior Investigating Officer Andy Tattersall said: "This case was made all the more tragic by the fact that Rosalind did not have any family that we could find, only her dog Lucky, who she loved.

"GMP made several attempts to trace her family back to Northern Ireland where she was originally from, but despite a heartwarming response from communities there, we never found any of Rosalind's relatives.

"Lucky was rehomed and Rosalind's funeral was well-attended. She was obviously a very well-liked woman."