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http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/news/stories/Detail_LinkStory=47644.html
Life for murder teacher
A SCHOOL teacher who used his computer to watch scenes of torture and murder developed an uncontrollable desire to kill, a court heard.
Thomas Clarke, fuelled by a cocktail of drink and drugs, prowled the streets looking for suitable targets and struck twice in two weeks.
His first victim, a teenage student, was left permanently disabled after Clarke plunged a knife into his arms and chest.
But then Clarke, a science teacher at Egerton Park School in Denton, struck again and murdered a 71-year-old retired dustman he picked out at random when he went out for a midnight stroll near his home.
Two days later 30-year-old Clarke, a university graduate who was also the head of a school's science department, rang police and asked them to arrest him.
"I won't be any trouble...I just need to stop doing this," he told a detective.
Today Clarke was starting a life sentence after he pleaded guilty at Manchester to charges of murder and attempted murder during the stabbing spree last April.
He was told by the city's recorder, Judge Sir Rhys Davies: "Without any motive recognisable to a human being you have snuffed out one life and severely damaged another.
"You are an intelligent but a deeply disturbed and dangerous man who came to believe it was necessary for you both to kill and to injure human beings wholly unknown to you."
Clarke, of Victoria Road, Dukinfield, admitted murdering Dennis Cotterill and was jailed for life. He was given 15 years concurrently for the attempted murder of Michael Kay.
Alan Conrad QC, prosecuting, said Mr Kay was walking along Dukinfield Road, Hyde, when he was suddenly attacked by Clarke and stabbed.
He broke free and managed to stagger to a nearby house where he collapsed in the garden. The householder called an ambulance and he was rushed to hospital with stab wounds to both arms and his chest.
Mr Conrad said an artery and all the nerves in the left arm had been severed and as a result of the attack Mr Kay is now terrified of going out alone.
Twelve days later Clarke struck again when he targeted Mr Cotterill as he walked along Henrietta Street, near his home in Ashton, and stabbed him through the heart. Shortly afterwards a motorist saw his body in the road.
Mr Conrad said the next night a detective at Stalybridge police station was telephoned and a man calling himself Tom said: "I'm the one you are looking for, for the stabbing and the murder the other night".
His computer was examined and he had used the Internet to access the "Ask Jeeves" section and asked numerous questions about the likely sentences for stabbings.
Life for murder teacher
A SCHOOL teacher who used his computer to watch scenes of torture and murder developed an uncontrollable desire to kill, a court heard.
Thomas Clarke, fuelled by a cocktail of drink and drugs, prowled the streets looking for suitable targets and struck twice in two weeks.
His first victim, a teenage student, was left permanently disabled after Clarke plunged a knife into his arms and chest.
But then Clarke, a science teacher at Egerton Park School in Denton, struck again and murdered a 71-year-old retired dustman he picked out at random when he went out for a midnight stroll near his home.
Two days later 30-year-old Clarke, a university graduate who was also the head of a school's science department, rang police and asked them to arrest him.
"I won't be any trouble...I just need to stop doing this," he told a detective.
Today Clarke was starting a life sentence after he pleaded guilty at Manchester to charges of murder and attempted murder during the stabbing spree last April.
He was told by the city's recorder, Judge Sir Rhys Davies: "Without any motive recognisable to a human being you have snuffed out one life and severely damaged another.
"You are an intelligent but a deeply disturbed and dangerous man who came to believe it was necessary for you both to kill and to injure human beings wholly unknown to you."
Clarke, of Victoria Road, Dukinfield, admitted murdering Dennis Cotterill and was jailed for life. He was given 15 years concurrently for the attempted murder of Michael Kay.
Alan Conrad QC, prosecuting, said Mr Kay was walking along Dukinfield Road, Hyde, when he was suddenly attacked by Clarke and stabbed.
He broke free and managed to stagger to a nearby house where he collapsed in the garden. The householder called an ambulance and he was rushed to hospital with stab wounds to both arms and his chest.
Mr Conrad said an artery and all the nerves in the left arm had been severed and as a result of the attack Mr Kay is now terrified of going out alone.
Twelve days later Clarke struck again when he targeted Mr Cotterill as he walked along Henrietta Street, near his home in Ashton, and stabbed him through the heart. Shortly afterwards a motorist saw his body in the road.
Mr Conrad said the next night a detective at Stalybridge police station was telephoned and a man calling himself Tom said: "I'm the one you are looking for, for the stabbing and the murder the other night".
His computer was examined and he had used the Internet to access the "Ask Jeeves" section and asked numerous questions about the likely sentences for stabbings.
