A horror fanatic who wanted to be like Freddy Krueger has been given six life sentences for a three-day murder spree.

An Old Bailey judge ordered that Daniel Gonzalez, 25, should never be let out of prison for four murders and two attempted murders across London and the South East.

On Thursday the jury took only 90 minutes to unanimously find him guilty of killing two men and two women in September 2004.

Earlier Gonzalez, from Woking in Surrey, admitted trying to murder another two men at the time.

"He wanted to be remembered as a famous serial killer," said Detective Chief Inspector Dave Cobb, who led the inquiry. "I hope he is forgotten and that we only remember his victims."

Gonzalez scarred the minds and bodies of his surviving victims and robbed three families of their loved ones, Mr Cobb added.

"He was clever and manipulative and did not want to accept responsibility for what he had done."

Tried to eat his own arm

Gonzalez had told police he wanted to be like Freddy Krueger, from the Nightmare on Elm Street horror films, for a day. His aim was to kill at least ten people.

The defence had argued voices told the jobless man to kill, making him guilty only of manslaughter through diminished responsibility.

The prosecution maintained he had a personality disorder, but was not mentally ill. "Daniel Gonzalez is a psychopath who killed because of the cold, callous person that he is," said prosecutor Richard Horwell.

"It is his personality which led him to kill, disturbed by a cocktail of drugs and alcohol."

While in custody, Gonzalez tried to eat his own arm. The court also heard how five police officers in full riot gear were needed to take him to the toilet.

Hockey mask

On the morning of September 15, 2004, Gonzalez caught a train from Woking to Portsmouth, Hampshire. At 11.20am he attacked Peter King, then 61, while the pensioner and his wife were out walking their dog.

The injured Mr King wrestled a steak knife from Gonzalez, who then fled.

Four hours later Gonzalez committed his first murder after taking a train to Worthing, Sussex. Marie Harding, 73, was stabbed to death on a public footpath.

During the murder Gonzalez wore a hockey-style mask, which was later found with Ms Harding's DNA on. The mask is of the same kind as used by Jason Voorhees, the serial killer in the Friday the 13th horror films.

Gonzalez returned home for the night before travelling into London the next day.

Knives and more knives

At 5.30am on September 17 he killed Kevin Molloy, 46, on the sidewalk in Tottenham High Road, north London. Two bloody knives, stolen from a local store, were found nearby.

Ninety minutes later Gonzalez broke into the South Tottenham home of Koumis Constantinou, then 59. He was still in bed with his wife, Christina, and went downstairs to check on the noise.

When Gonzalez attacked him with a large kitchen knife, Mrs Constantinou ran into the Frobisher Road and called for help. Her husband survived with bite and stab wounds.

The last attack, at 8am, claimed the lives of Derek Robinson, 75, and his wife Jean, 68, in Makepeace Avenue, Highgate. On his way there, Gonzalez bought another knife and asked for directions several times.

A painter who worked in their terraced home stumbled onto the Robinsons' bodies and saw Gonzalez jump over the back fence.

Police arrested him four hours later after he, in blood-soaked clothes, asked staff at King's Cross station for a place to shower. He also used a blood-stained £20 note to buy a travel card at Tottenham Court Road station.