A New Barnet man stabbed his soulmate' to death after he was released from hospital for killing his wife and doctor, the Old Bailey heard on Monday.

Dennis Foskett, 61, a former mental patient, bludgeoned Pauline Cole, 50, with a towel rail and slashed her throat with a kitchen knife on July 28 last year.

He then took an overdose of pills before dialling 999 to tell police and paramedics: "Oh, it's terrible here. I just can't believe it."

Foskett, of Spar House, Lytton Road, was found with Miss Cole's body in her one-bedroom flat in Manor Park, east London.

A psychiatrist told the court that Foskett suffers from a depressive psychosis with an underlying personality disorder.

Miss Cole met Foskett when she was being treated for depression at the Goodmayes Hospital in Essex. Foskett had been detained there for killing his wife of 20 years, Margaret Foskett, and Dr Eva Glickman with a hammer at his home on May 17, 1985.

He had admitted two counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility but was released from the facility in 1993.

It was then he developed a relationship with Miss Cole.

Foskett denied murdering Miss Cole, but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The Common Serjeant of London, Judge Peter Beaumont, told Foskett he would be detained in a mental hospital indefinitely under the Mental Health Act.