A MAN who knifed his brother could spend his life in a secure hospital, a court was told yesterday.

Craig Hart, 28, suffers from paranoid schizophrenia which tends to be a lifelong illness, said Dr Richard Pyett, a consultant forensic psychiatrist.

Hart stabbed his brother David, 32, with a ten-inch knife in their parents' kitchen.

There was no warning of the attack but there had been an earlier incident, in 1994, said Dr Pyett.

The brothers are both epileptic and their parents were their carers in Eston, Teesside. Hart's father, Philip, disarmed him after the attack, said David Lamb, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court.

Dr Pyett told the hearing: "I would consider given what I know that the family is more at risk, and the wider public to a lesser degree."

Hart's parents visited him regularly during the 11 weeks he was under observation at the Hutton Centre, attached to St Luke's Psychiatric Hospital, in Middlesbrough, and they were in court when he was sentenced.

Hart, of Woodcock Close, Bankfields, Eston, was sentenced to a hospital order without time limit on his restriction under the Mental Health Act after he admitted unlawful wounding on April 26.

Judge Michael Taylor said: "This young man's family deserves praise for their devotion to both of their sons."