Electronic Telegraph UK News Monday May 27 1996 Issue 392 'Satan' gunman sent to mental hospital By John Steele, Crime Correspondent * It's your day to die, Sartin told victim A GUNMAN who rampaged through a town with a shotgun seven years ago, killing one man and wounding 16 people, was sent to a secure mental hospital indefinitely yesterday. The case of Robert Sartin, a 22-year-old Department of Social Security clerk who referred to himself as Satan, had remained in legal limbo since the shootings in 1989 because a jury decided that he was unfit to plead at his trial in 1990. Sartin appeared at Durham Crown Court yesterday after doctors who had treated him for seven years declared him fit to be arraigned. Sartin, who was obsessed with the occult and had his unwitting parents drive him to Hungerford, Berks, so that he could secretly retrace the route of Michael Ryan's 1987 massacre, clutched a piece of paper with instructions on it as 18 charges were put to him. He denied murdering Ken MacKintosh, 41, a British Telecom engineer, who was shot as he walked home from the Methodist church where he worshipped and organised a Scout troop. He also denied the attempted murder of 17 other people. He replied to each: "Not guilty by virtue of insanity." The Crown accepted the pleas. Such pleas, which are exceptionally rare, are not acquittals. They are final verdicts which allow a judge to dispose of cases in which a defendant is deemed to have committed an act, but to have had no mental responsibility for it because of insanity. There were only seven such pleas in 1,008 trials involving mental illness in 1994. After Sartin's 20-minute hearing Mr Justice Kennedy told him: "There is no question that this tragedy came about because you were, as you remain, a gravely ill man." Sartin, of Whitley Bay, Tyneside, has spent most of the past seven years at Ashworth hospital on Merseyside. David Robson, QC, prosecuting, told the court that on Sunday, April 30, 1989, Sartin left his home with his father's shotgun and ammunition, driving in his Ford Escort to Pykerley Road in nearby Monkseaton, where he began shooting. His first two shots were fired at a car driver, Judith Rhodes, 43. One smashed her windscreen and the other wounded her left hand. Sartin, who listed his interests at school as as "shooting, reading, collecting things to do with the occult and torturing the cat", went on to shoot five more people, including Lorraine Noble, who was chatting to William Roberts at his garden gate. The gunman then came upon Mr Mackintosh. He shot him with both barrels from a distance of 20 yards. As Mr Mackintosh lay severely wounded, Sartin walked up to him and killed him with another double blast at close range. 'I want my victims to know that their awful pain was not the result of a planned or intended crime' When Robert Wilson, 39, stepped out of his front door after hearing the noise, he too was shot. A neighbour, Kathleen Lynch, was wounded as she looked from her bedroom window. Other victims included a 39-year-old cyclist, who was seriously wounded as he rode past the scene, and a couple and their daughter who came under fire as they drove nearby. The final shot was fired at an elderly woman, Jean Miller, who was working in her front garden. After the rampage Sartin returned to his car and drove towards the seafront, pursued by an armed police constable, Danny Herdman, who arrested him in a public house car park. Sartin was found to be carrying a knife and an ammunition belt with five remaining cartridges. In a statement read to the court on his behalf, he apologised for his "terrible" offences, adding: "What I want my victims and the family of Mr Mackintosh to know is that their awful pain was not the result of a planned or intended crime and there was no pleasure involved. It was completely the product of a mental illness so severe that reality was taken over by insanity." After the hearing a statement from Mr Mackintosh's daughter, Debbie, was read by police. She said that her father "loved his work and took a great deal of pride in it'. "He was a man who took pride in everything he did, from playing snooker to DIY, from helping with your homework to running the local youth club," the statement said. "He was kind, intelligent, funny and he loved his family more than anything in the world. That love has kept us sane throughout this seven years of hell." Sartin's parents, Brian and Joan, expressed their sympathy for the victims in a statement through their lawyer. The statement added: "It is clear from the reports of psychiatrists eminent in this field that Robert was of unsound mind." Mr and Mrs Sartin said that they had been "aware of Robert's interests in books concerning the occult and related subjects, but regarded it as no more than the pursuit of knowledge in an unusual subject. "Only with the benefit of hindsight would it be envisaged that his interests could be affected by mental illness or lead to violence of any kind." This article appeared in Saturday's edition of the Daily Telegraph 14 March 1996: Thread that links killers who target the innocent
