A SCHIZOPHRENIC from Northwood who knifed his neighbour to death for playing his music to loudly was locked away in a mental hospital yesterday.

Warren Henson, 45, forced himself into the home of plumber Richard James, 32, telling him to turn the stereo down.

Henson then ran back to his flat in Joel Street and rushed back armed with a knife stabbing it 19 times in Mr James' chest and arm on July 4 last year.

The Old Bailey heard how Henson, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1980, was a heavy drinker.

The court was also told how he suffered from persecutory auditory hallucinations.

Follwing the attack, police played the stereo in Mr James' flat at the volume it was set after the death, and they found the music could not be heard in Henson's flast.

Oliver Glasgow, prosecuting said the pair had already clashed over the volume of coming from Mr James' flat, and on that occasion Henson had threatened him with a baseball bat.

When Henson was arrested, he told police he "saw red" because of the loud music he heard eminating from the victim's home.

He denied murder but admitted manslaughter due to diminished responsibility. The Crown accepted his plea.

Ordering Henson's indefinate detention under section 37 and 41 of the Mental Health Act 1983, Judge Richard Hawkins, said: "The Crown was quite right to accept the plea. That was the appropriate course in the light of your mental condition."

He added: "No sentence helps the loved ones cope with the loss of a precious life."