A MENTALLY ill man from Atherton who launched an horrific knife attack on his wife and step-son hours after begging health workers for help, will be kept in hospital indefinitely.

Diarmuid Johnson, aged 40 -- described in court as a loving and devoted husband who had previously been sectioned because of his illness -- pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to two offences of wounding with intent.

The court heard that Johnson, who had not slept for five nights, went downstairs at his Blacksmith's Fold home in Atherton at 3am to make a cup of tea.

His wife, Sue, followed and discovered him staring vacantly at the wall in the kitchen. She returned to bed but Johnson followed her with a knife and repeatedly stabbed her.

Miss Susan Klonin, prosecuting, said: "She screamed for her son, Jamie, and he came in and Johnson went for him as well.

"They managed somehow to get to the bathroom but it literally became a blood bath. He was stabbing wildly around the door and Sue fell into the bath."

She added: "The attack continued but eventually she managed to get downstairs and ran out naked into the street, covered in blood."

Jamie, aged 17, also managed to escape and alerted the police. When they arrived, Johnson locked himself inside the house. Police broke in and found him with his hands clasped around a knife blade which was embedded into his chest. Miss Klonin said that his wife, a nurse whom he had married four years earlier, suffered multiple stab wounds to her chest, arms, shoulder and had a "tremendously" long scar across her throat. Jamie had a stab wound to his nostril and stomach.

Miss Klonin said that Johnson had been a loving and devoted husband who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.

The court heard his illness peaked last March and the couple were pleading for help.

They contacted his GP, Leigh Infirmary and community psychiatric nurse but said they received no help.

Johnson had even seized the phone off his wife while she was talking to the nurse and begged for help, said Miss Klonin. Judge Gerald Clifton said that Mrs Johnson's injuries were, "horrific." He added: "It is inappropriate to impose a custodial sentence.

"Medical reports make it clear you are suffering from an extreme form of schizophrenia."

Johnson, who sat sobbing in the dock while accompanied by psychiatric nurses, denied charges of attempted murder, which were dropped.

John Weate, defending, said: "He is a warm-hearted, gentle and sensitive man. He suffered from depression from his mid-30s and it developed into paranoid schizophrenia.

"His illness culminated in the belief that even his wife, who was so loving and concerned about his health and welfare, was a person who was out to do him harm."