THE JUDGE who gave Timothy Crook a permanent hospital order said lessons must be learned from the case.

Mr Justice Roderick Evans said: “This family were trying to obtain help for a considerable time before this tragedy occurred but their efforts to obtain help were largely unsuccessful.

“From what we do know from the evidence from the case and the documents, it appears to me that the appropriate authorities should stand back, look at this case to see whether something did go wrong and what lessons can be learnt.

“There are clearly matters here of continuing concern.”

Judge Evans said he had no choice but to order Crook to be detained under the Mental Health Act. Addressing Crook via the video link Judge Evans said: “The jury have found that you killed your mother and father.

“You have not been fit to stand trial. You will be subject to a hospital order and remain as long as there is a bed for you at Rampton.

“As well as remaining there you will be subject to another order and without liberty of time.”

Crook, who has a history of mental illness dating back to 2000, moved in with his parents in 2003 after being released from a psychiatric hospital in Lincoln, where he had previously worked for the RAF.

In his increasingly paranoid and delusional state, Crook subjected his parents to intimidation and abuse over five years. It was perhaps an argument over the state of the bathroom which tipped him over the edge in to a brutal rage.

In his increasingly paranoid state, he ripped out the bathroom and insisted on replacing it himself, causing tension.

Crook is at Rampton Secure Psychiatric Hospital and has been watching the trial for the double murder by video link.

Three psychiatrists have assessed Crook to be unfit to plead to the offences and Judge Evans ordered that the trial was taking place only to establish whether it was Crook who committed the crime.

On Monday last week, Crook’s sister Janice Lawrence said: “He would be unkind to them, domineer them and control them, the language was terrible.”

The following day next door neighbour in Swindon, Nigel Collins told the court he found two black bin bags in his garden at around the same time as Robert and Elsie disappeared. Last Wednesday police officers described the moment they discovered the bodies of Robert and Elsie Crook in the garden of a house belonging to their son in Foxglove Way, Lincoln underneath two wheelie bins.

And on Thursday the jury heard how Wiltshire Police officers found blood-soaked clothes belonging to Robert and Elsie Crook dumped at their Swindon home. On Monday senior forensic scientist Steven Harrington said a shirt was found in a bin liner at the couple’s home was found splattered with Elsie’s blood.

Crook’s DNA was found on a sock inside the bag and his parents blood was sprayed across a pillow case, wall and hallway. On the final day of evidence on Tuesday, the jury was told how six different police forces involved in the case found no evidence that pensioners Robert and Elsie Crook died anywhere other than their Swindon home.

Det Sgt Nicholas Shorton from Wiltshire Police’s major investigation team said: “Lincoln police had to force entry into 29 Foxglove Way, Lincoln, through a window above the garage. There was no evidence of an assault within that house, no blood left on the walls or carpets.”