Man arrested after killing his grandma in Ruabon

• Kyle Ellis had paranoid schizophrenia and was “deeply mentally ill,” a court heard.
• Susan Hannaby’s body was found after a house fire in Ruabon, Wrexham.
• Judge said he would not have done the ‘horrible crime’ if not for mental illness.

A man has been sent to a mental hospital for the rest of his life after admitting to killing his grandmother, whose body was found after a house fire.

Kyle Ellis denied that he had killed someone on February 11, 2016, and the prosecution agreed that his guilt was lessened.

Ellis, who lived on New Hall Road in Ruabon, Wrexham, had paranoid schizophrenia and was “deeply mentally ill,” the Mold Crown Court heard.

He choked and stabbed Susan Hannaby, who was 69 years old, before he started the fire.

Ellis lived with Mrs. Hannaby and his grandfather, who died in 2020, for about 10 years, the court heard.

Sharon, his mother, said in a statement that was read in court that she was “glad Kyle is getting the help he needs. We talk, and that gives me some comfort.”

Judge Rhys Rowlands, who gave him his sentence, said that Mrs. Hannaby had died after a “continued and brutal attack.”

But he said it was clear Ellis would not have done the “horrible crime” if he did not have a mental illness at the time, which had not even been diagnosed, let alone treated.

Judge Rowlands explained what happened before Mrs. Hannaby died by saying that Ellis’s grandparents had “spoiled him rotten” after he moved in with them at age 14.

After his grandfather died, his grandmother, who was sick, became more dependent on him. This made their relationship “tense at times.”

He said that Ellis had been sent home from work because of stress, that he and his girlfriend had broken up, and that in the days before the fatal attack, he started acting in ways that worried his friends and family.

He sent upsetting text messages in which he talked about being abused when he was a child.

He also said that there was no reason for the murder, but that “psychosis was the reason.”

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