Accused 'wanted to be Freddy Krueger'

After slashing the 73-year-old's throat near her home in Southwick, Daniel Gonzalez boasted in a chilling note how the killing was "one of the best things I've done in my life", the Old Bailey heard yesterday.

Gonzalez, 25, - nicknamed Zippy - denies four charges of murdering Mrs Harding and three others over a three-day period in bid to become a notorious serial killer.

It is alleged that he wanted to kill "at least ten people" in a campaign of murder stretching from Sussex to London.

Gonzalez, who lived with his mother in Woking, Surrey, accepts he was the killer on each occasion but claims he was being told by "voices" to kill his victims.

The court heard Gonzalez, a heavy drinker and drug abuser, told police he used to watch a lot of horror films at home.

He said he wanted to know what it would be like to be reincarnated serial killer and child molester Freddy Krueger, the cult horror figure of Wes Craven's Nightmare on Elm Street series.

Krueger, played by American actor Robert Englund is, along with Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers, one of the most popular villains in horror film history.

Prosecutor Richard Horwell said: "He told the officers that he had wondered what it would be like to be Freddy Krueger for the day.

"Then a little later, perhaps appreciating his error, he said that it was the voices that had told him to be Freddy Krueger."

When Gonzalez's home was searched after his arrest, a magazine called Freddy Krueger's Nightmares was found, the court heard.

It is alleged Gonzalez murdered Jean and Derek Robinson and Kevin Molloy on September 17, 2004, and Mrs Harding two days earlier on September 15.

The jurors were told Gonzalez wrote a note after killing Mrs Harding, which read: "I got that old bitch proper, bloodbath, pouring out of her throat, boy, McFlurry!

"I got to say this, it felt really really really good. One of the best things I've done in my life, from Zippy.

"Only better buzzes is life, pills, K, puff, techno, hardcore, etc etc etc."

His note, discovered among property he had left at the luggage deposit at King's Cross station, also said: "I will be a serial killer I mean it I promise. I will be a serial killer.

"I am gonna make sure I get to London and kill some old bill as soon as I can.

"Sorry Katrina, I will kill as many old bill as I can as best I can."

Mr Horwell told jurors the central issue in the case was whether or not the defendant was suffering from psychotic symptoms, namely auditory hallucinations, at the time of the killings - hearing voices commanding him to kill.

The prosecution did not accept this diagnosis.

Mr Horwell said: "The Crown's response will be that the defendant was in control and command of his actions and that the defendant is, in law, a murderer. If the voices were drug-induced, their origin is not mental illness."

Gonzalez is in Broadmoor, said Mr Horwell.

He has admitted the attempted murder of two people he attacked who survived, the court heard. There was no defence of diminished responsibility to attempted murder - only for murder, the prosecution explained.

The two victims he tried to kill were Peter King, 61, in Portscreek, Portsmouth, on September 15 and Koumis Constantino, at Frobisher Road, Hornsey, north London, on September 17.

Gonzalez's last attack was on the Robinsons. Derek Robinson, 75, was a retired paediatrician and his wife Jean was 60.

Mr Horwell said: "One of them must have opened the door to the defendant because there was no sign of a forced entry.

"In the hallway, the defendant attacked them both with a knife he had recently purchased at the local hardware store.

"Mr Robinson was stabbed in the face, neck and abdomen.

"Mrs Robinson was stabbed in the face, neck and chest. Both died."

A few minutes later a decorator let himself in and saw their bodies surrounded by blood.

He also saw Gonzalez coming from the kitchen naked.

He was preparing to take a shower.

Gonzalez allegedly said "Sorry about this mate" before the decorator left to call the police.

He was arrested later that day on the London Underground.

The trial continues.