Man stabbed father after years of smoking skunk

A university dropout who stabbed his father in the back minutes after he was sent home by psychiatrists is set to be detained in a secure hospital. Henry Jack Archer, 24, developed paranoid schizophrenia after years of smoking powerful cannabis – known

A university dropout who stabbed his father in the back minutes after he was sent home by psychiatrists is set to be detained in a secure hospital.

Henry 'Jack' Archer, 24, developed paranoid schizophrenia after years of smoking powerful cannabis - known as skunk - daily.

He believed his architect father Ian, 57, was the head of a secret organisation capable of giving him a heart attack with radio waves.

Archer, of Fortis Green, Muswell Hill, had also taken crack cocaine and left Brighton University within a year because of depression and paranoia caused by his drink and drug benders.

On September 26 last year he was given "a clean bill of health" after hospital treatment at Whittington Hospital in north London and stabbed Ian Archer when he arrived home.

He was cleared of attempted murder by the Old Bailey on the grounds he was not in control of his actions and will now be sentenced under the Mental Health Act.

Archer's attack was witnessed by his mother Barbara, who had to pull the weapon from between her husband's shoulder blades.

Prosecutor Andrew Copeland told the court: "It's obvious that Jack Archer needs psychiatric care, his family believe that, and he can get that care if there is a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity."

Caroline English, defending, said Archer's schizophrenia may have been exacerbated by his use of drugs.

Archer denied attempted murder on the grounds of insanity. He is due to be sentenced on July 8.