A mentally ill man told a terrified dominatrix he was a Jedi Knight who had been ordered to kill her, a court heard.

Steven Pollard, 28, had a blanket around his shoulders like a cape and was brandishing a 2ft scaffold pole like the characters in the Star Wars films use a lightsaber.

As he stood in the basement courtyard of 47-year-old Roma Brooks' home in Kemp Town, Brighton, he told her: "I have come to kill you. I am a man of peace. I am a Jedi. God has told me to revenge the world."

Pollard, of no fixed address, has denied charges of attempting burglary with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm and making a threat to kill.

The jury has been asked to consider a special verdict under the 1883 Trial of Lunatics Act of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Michael Warren, prosecuting, told the court: "This case is unusual. The defence will submit, and it is not disputed, that at the time of these offences the defendant was insane and not responsible for his actions."

The court heard Pollard became obsessed with Ms Brooks, who worked at the time as a professional dominatrix.

He told doctors he had a premonition in his dream he was destined to commit suicide in front of a dominatrix.

On April 18 last year, Ms Brooks was woken when Pollard smashed the glass in her front door at 3.30am.

Her partner, Neill McGrath, tried to calm Pollard down but he started swinging the bar around. There was a violent struggle during which Pollard was injured and needed hospital treatment.

The court heard Pollard, who has a history of mental illness dating back ten years, was remanded in custody after his arrest and later transferred to Ashenhill Hospital, a secure unit at Hellingly, near Hailsham, where he has been diagnosed with suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

Graham Huston, defending, told the jury: "He did not know what he was doing was wrong because he was being guided by the voice of God."

The hospital wants Pollard, who is working at the Oxfam shop in Hailsham, to be transferred to an open unit at Ashenhill for about a year before returning to live in the community.

The trial continues.