Rapist stabbed child, 7, in drug-fuelled spree
Northumbria PoliceA psychotic rapist who went on a stabbing spree in which a seven-year-old child suffered multiple wounds has been sentenced to indefinite detention at a secure hospital.
Byron Stubbs, 25, said he thought the child was the devil when he attacked them and two women with a kitchen knife at a house in Sunderland following a three-day alcohol and cocaine binge, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
He also raped a woman several years before and only admitted it after he thought police would find the footage he filmed of the attack on his phone, the court heard.
Stubbs, of no fixed abode, admitted attempted murder, intentional wounding and rape.
Stubbs had a history of severe mental illness which he exacerbated through his use of alcohol and illegal drugs, prosecutor Jolyn Perks said.
He had been drinking alcohol, taking drugs and had not slept for three days before stabbing the child in the stomach and then attacking two women who intervened, the court heard.
Police found Stubbs and the house he was in covered in blood.
The child, who also suffered bone-deep wounds to their hand and arms, could have died if the stomach injury had been any deeper, the prosecutor said.
One woman was stabbed through the ear and the other in the arms and hands, the court heard.
'Petrified' child
In a statement read to the court, the mother of the child said the "horrific" attack had changed their family's lives forever.
The previously "happy little" child now "freaked out" if someone stood behind them and was "petrified" of knives, the court heard.
The woman said she feared their child would suffer mental health issues for the rest of their life.
Stubbs was also sentenced for raping a woman several years previously, the court heard.
The woman said she had been "bubbly, outgoing, loud and adventurous" but was now a "completely different person" who was "anxious and jumpy in every situation".
In a statement read to the court, she said he initially denied raping her but later admitted it because police had his phone and he thought they would find his video of the rape.
'Needs intensive treatment'
Since the attacks, Stubbs, who had previously been sectioned in a mental health hospital, had been diagnosed with schizophrenia with delusions and auditory hallucinations around God and the devil, the court heard.
A mental health doctor told the court Stubbs would pose a high risk of harm to others even if successfully treated for his schizophrenia if he continued to choose to drink and take drugs.
Other psychiatrists said he had a "long history of delusional beliefs", had shown "high levels of violence and aggression" and domestically abused several partners.
The court heard Stubbs was given a suspended jail term for blackmail in 2020 and a caution for battery in 2022.
Judge Robert Adams said, while it was clear Stubbs was a "dangerous offender" who posed a "significant risk of causing serious harm", he needed "intensive and enduring" treatment.
He said the risks to the public from Stubbs were very great and would "remain so for a very long time".
The public would be better protected by a hospital order, which would include ongoing psychiatric treatment, rather than Stubbs being put in prison, the judge said.
Had he been jailed, Stubbs would have got 15 years with four years extended licence, the court heard.
Stubbs must also sign the sex offenders register indefinitely.
