A PRINTER who went on a random stabbing spree in Brighton, killing one man and wounding two others, was today found not guilty of murder.

Nicholas Mason, 25, was instead found guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility by the jury at Lewes Crown Court.

Judge Richard Brown said Mason represented a great danger to the public and would remain so for an unknown time.

He adjourned sentencing to June 1 for psychiatric reports and remanded Mason to Broadmoor Secure Mental Hospital.

Mason, of no fixed address, pleaded not guilty to murder but admitted manslaughter, two counts of wounding and one of escaping custody at Hellingly Hospital while on remand.

The parents of Justin El Korashy, stabbed to death by Mason, afterwards expressed disappointment at the verdict and called on the public to lobby MPs to bring in harsher penalties for killers and people who carry weapons.

Justin's father Ramzy said: "Immediate action needs to be taken against those who carry knives and offensive weapons designed to wound and kill.

"The sentence should be severe and the detention should be immediate."

His 19-year-old son, who lived at the family home in Saltdean Drive, Saltdean, was one of two victims stabbed as they were winding down at the end of the day at an advertising agency in Providence Place, Brighton.

Mason, described in court as a man with a severe personality disorder, heard music and asked why he had not been invited to the party.

He was shown the door but returned moments later in a violent rage, and stabbed Justin in the heart.

Justin's colleague Thomas Meakin, 20, from Hove was stabbed in the back.

Just minutes earlier Mason had called at a flat in Ditchling Road, the home of Ruan Ali Malkovich, 35.

Mason asked for a girl called Susie, but Mr Malkovich told him he lived there alone. Mason responded with violence, stabbing the victim in an eye and the stomach.

Both Mason's two other victims recovered in hospital.

Police launched a massive manhunt but Mason escaped to Gatwick, where he caught a plane to Amsterdam.

They were later tipped off that Mason was the killer and they were waiting for him when he arrived back in Britain at Harwich ferry port.

Police discovered Mason had several convictions for violence.

Only a year before the Brighton stabbings, he had been cleared of manslaughter over a stabbing death during a gang fight in London.

Mason's defence barrister, Peter Rook, said Mason was a tormented man who feared people involved in the London stabbing were after him.

He said of Mason: "He was an unpredictable time bomb."

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