A student at the University of Manchester who killed his 89-year-old gran by setting fire to her house has been sentenced to be detained in a mental health hospital.
Chanatorn Croghan, 21, seemed to spiral out of control during his first term at the university and eventually quit his course, prosecutor William Carter told Norwich Crown Court. The defendant turned up unannounced at his grandmother's house, where his father Richard Croghan also lived, at around 9pm on December 9, 2020.
He mostly stayed in his bedroom but at around 11pm on December 10 he went to his father's room. Feeling threatened, his father called the police.
Just after midnight, three officers attended and told Richard that if he wanted his son to leave the house he should tell him in the morning, Mr Carter said. "They took the view if the defendant was evicted that night because of his mental health difficulties he would be classified as a high-risk missing person,” he added.
Feeling "uncomfortable", Richard decided to stay at his female friend's house, leaving the Norwich property at 1am. During this leave, Richard had turned his phone completely off - when he turned it back on at 8am on December 11, it showed the smoke alarm had been activated at 4.50am.
The prosecution counsel said emergency services were already there as a passerby phoned 999. Meanwhile, university lecturer Vera Croghan died from inhalation of fire fumes.
Mr Carter also noted that an investigation revealed that a fire had been set in a cupboard under the stairs, while Richard's bank card went missing. "It was used shortly before 9am to make an online purchase then at 3.20pm it was used at a local shop, plainly by this defendant,” said Mr Carter.
Chanatorn Croghan was then arrested while approaching his grandmother's house at around 3.30pm. “The crown point to clear financial motive," Mr Carter added.
“This wasn’t some meaningless act – a deep-seated hatred of his father; the fire was deliberately sited to minimise the chances of escape of those upstairs; it was necessary to move furniture to access the cupboard.
“Of course after the event having stolen the wallet he used the bank card.”
He said that Croghan “spoke of lighting a cardboard box under the stairs as Elon Musk wanted to go to Mars”, adding that the defendant “appeared not to be in touch with reality”. While being held at a secure unit, he searched online for "what to do if accused of murder" and "how to get away with arson".
Croghan had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital after an incident in May 2020. “He began to report hearing voices in his head which he blamed on the neighbour,” said Mr Carter.
“An incident followed where he assaulted that neighbour and his father and caused criminal damage.” Croghan was later discharged and told staff that he would take his prescribed medication and stop "illiciit drugs" - Mr Carter noted that it was "on that basis he was assessed as a low risk".
Despite this, Croghan did not take his medication and was using cocaine and cannabis and "appeared to be abusing alcohol".
“Fellow students at Manchester describe his behaviour from the outset as being strange and unsettling and it became worse as that first term went on, through November and into the first days of December 2020,” he said.
“He’s described as spiralling out of control to the point his flatmates contacted their residential life co-ordinator.” Croghan refused an offer of counselling and "in email exchanges between "December 7 and 9 Croghan informed the university he would shortly be leaving”.
In early December 2020, he called his father “various questions about finance” and had been “saying that he wanted his inheritance”, Mr Carter said.
Dr Catherine Weeks, a specialist registrar in forensic psychiatry, told the court that Croghan had a type of schizophrenia called hebephrenic. Judge Anthony Bate described Croghan, who was accompanied in the secure dock by four nursing staff, as a “very troubled young man”.
“In my judgment, you pose a high risk of serious harm to the public,” he said, as he sentenced him to a hospital order.
He enforced a restriction under Section 41 of the Mental Health Act 1983, stating that generally a person subject to this "isn't discharged without approval of the Secretary of State for Justice". In a victim impact statement, Richard Croghan said that had lost his "wonderful mother" in the "tragedy".
His brother James Croghan said he had “genuine fears for the future”, adding “what if he does it again?” His sibling Mike Croghan said: “Our family has been torn apart by the grief and blame.”
Jennifer Dempster KC, mitigating, said: “He (Croghan) was deeply mentally unwell at the time of this offence and also psychotic.”
The judge also instructed that two further charges, of the murder of his grandmother and the attempted murder of his father, should lie on the file. Croghan was convicted of two counts of assaulting an emergency worker, having assaulted two prison officers in separate incidents when he was transferred from the secure unit to Norwich Prison earlier this year.
Ms Croghan was described by her family as a "much-loved mum of four and grandmother of 10”.
“She was a well-known and highly respected academic, having been a lecturer in Swedish and Scandinavian Studies at the UEA from its establishment in 1963 until her retirement over 30 years later,” her family said.
“She was the author of the best-selling Teach Yourself Swedish book. She dearly loved Norwich and the local area, and she loved the house that she had lived in continuously for 57 years.”
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