A SCHIZOPHRENIC woman who wants to become a serial killer was ordered to be detained at a maximum security hospital.

Julie Byelong, 26, formerly of Bacup, and husband Douglas, 56, admitted kidnapping and attempting to murder a taxi driver and snatching a six-year-old boy while on the run from Hampshire.

Sentencing Julie Byelong to be detained under Section 41 of the Mental Health Act, Mr Justice Mantell, at Leeds Crown Court, said he was satisfied she suffered from mental illness and was a schizophrenic.

Doctor Mark Swinton, a psycatrist at Ashworth Hospital, Merseyside, said Byelong's wish to become a serial killer had to be taken very seriously. Asked by the judge whether Byelong is dangerous, Doctor Swinton said emphatically: 'Yes.'

Julie Byelong married husband Douglas Byelong while both were patients in the Langdale medium secure unit Whittingham, near Longridge. The couple went on the rampage after care in the community patient Douglas Byelong persuaded his wife to leave the unit during an unescorted walk in the grounds.

Julie Byelong did not return from the half-hour walk, but it was five days before the Build Community Health Care NHS Trust reported her missing to police.

During their rampage on the South Coast the Byelongs forced a taxi driver to drive 50 miles at knife-point before stabbing him. The driver managed to escape and raise the alarm and Douglas Byelong took the wheel.

The couple then killed a cocker spaniel dog belonging to a woman on whose door they had knocked. They then kidnapped the boy Julie Byelong had hauled off his bike into the taxi. This was stopped by police bursting the tyres and rescuing him.

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