Tony Griffin(picture below) became horrifically violent when his young victim told him she just wanted to be friends in Normanby, Middlesbrough..
A lonely hearts romeo is set to be detained indefinitely for the safety of women after slashing the throat of a ‘date’ he had just met online.
Tony Griffin became horrifically violent when his young victim told him she just wanted to be friends.
He is now awaiting sentence after admitting wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and is likely to be detained indefinitely to a secure hospital.
Court papers reveal he planned to butcher another woman after she spurned his advances.
In March, Griffin met the slash attack victim - around the same age as him - on the dating website, Oasis.
The day after they first met, the woman told him she did not want a relationship and wanted to be friends.
A week later, she agreed to meet him again and walked along the old railway line in Normanby, Middlesbrough, close to his home.
Griffin was wearing black gloves, which worried the woman as it was a sunny day.
He asked her what she thought of him and she said she thought he was nice.
He replied, “Well nice people don’t do this”, attacking her with a knife, slashing her chest, and felling her as she tried to run away.
He pulled back her head and made at least seven “methodical slashing movements” at her neck.
A dog-walker heroically stepped in to prevent the young woman suffering further serious injury - and may have saved her life.
He and another passer-by saw alerted police, and the woman broke free.
Griffin was “unemotional” with “a blank expression” before he calmly walked away from the scene.
After his arrest, he admitted that he wanted to “stab her in the back” as he felt he had been rejected.
It emerged that he was earlier convicted of harassing and threatening to kill another woman at exactly the same spot.
He had plotted to lure her to the same footpath to stab her to death.
Griffin was originally charged with attempted murder and was due to go on trial, but changed his plea to admit a lesser charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
At Teesside Crown Court, he appeared in the dock wearing a three-piece grey suit and tie.
Flanked by three doctors, he spoke only to confirm his name and enter his guilty plea.
After the hearing, Griffin, of Eston, Middlesbrough, was taken to a psychiatric unit, where he is likely to be held.
Psychiatrists agreed he had a mental disorder and autism, which merited detention in hospital for treatment.
They recommended a hospital order with restriction, which would mean Griffin could only be released with the approval of the Secretary of State for Justice.
A youth court gave him a hospital order in 2011 after he was convicted of harassing a girl who spurned his advances. He was found with a tool kit including a rope, and told police he was “looking for someone to kill”.
That court also heard Griffin was arrested last August after he again made threats to kill.
He will be sentenced on September 29.
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