A "PSYCHOTIC" killer who cut grass with scissors and attacked a pensioner has had his sentence delayed yet again.

Karl Hardwick, who once kicked a Kidderminster dad-of-four to death, was due to be sentenced for fresh offences, including an attack on a 70-year-old woman, on Tuesday (January 5).

The 37-year-old appeared over videolink from HMP Hewell at Worcester Crown Court - his fifth appearance for the same offences.

Hardwick, who has a conviction for manslaughter, was due to be sentenced for assault occasioning actual bodily harm at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester on January 18 last year and for a string of offences last April.

The April offences include battery against a 70-year-old woman, ABH against another woman, using violence to enter the woman’s flat, and criminal damage.

Hardwick also admits having an article with a blade or point on September 22, 2019 – a pair of scissors - in Chedworth Drive, Warndon, Worcester.

At the age of 17, the former drug addict kicked father-of-four Thomas O’Brien to death outside St Paul’s Hostel in Worcester.

He was sentenced to eight years' youth custody in 2000 after admitting being one of two teenagers who killed the Kidderminster man.

Hardwick was sentenced to 22 weeks in prison in January 2019 after making threats which breached his Criminal Behaviour Order and a suspended sentence for assaulting police constable Deborah Manson in the execution of her duty.

Sam Lamsdale, for Hardwick, said her client was due to attend a multi-disciplinary hearing this week to see whether he can be accepted for treatment at Studdert Kennedy House in Worcester before a further meeting to appoint a named practitioner.

Judge Nicholas Cole said he was wary of proceeding without this information and that the offences had to be viewed "in the context of psychotic mental illness".

"I'm not going to proceed to sentence today. It would not be in the interests of justice," he said.

Hardwick was remanded in custody until a further hearing on Monday, January 25.