Grandmother stabbed more than 70 times by squatter after returning from holiday in Turkey

Andrea Cutler attacked Sandra Bainbridge with two knives in a frenzied attack

Andrea Cutler, a heroin user, broke into Sandra Bainbridge’s home (pictured) and used her credit card (Derbyshire Constabulary )

A woman was stabbed 73 times by a squatter she found in her home after returning from a holiday in Turkey, a court in Nottingham heard.

Andrea Cutler, a heroin user, broke into Sandra Bainbridge’s home and used her credit card six days after walking out of southern Derbyshire magistrates’ court where she faced a harassment charge and failing to return, The Times reports.

Nottingham Crown Court heard Ms Bainbridge, a mother-of-three, returned from a week in Turkey in December 2013 to find Cutler in the property. After being challenged by the 70-year-old, Cutler, 39, stabbed her repeatedly in the head, face and vagina.

A post-mortem found Ms Bainbridge may have been conscious for up to 35 minutes after the brutal attack.

Cutler, from Derby, then confronted her partner Derek Joyner with a knife after he came to check on Ms Bainbridge at the house the next day.

The court heard Cutler chased him out of the house and down the street before fleeing in Ms Bainbridge’s car. She was eventually arrested in Manchester when police recognised the number plate.

Cutler denied murder but admitted manslaughter because of a mental disorder she had been suffering from at the time.

Judge Gregory Dickinson, QC, described her as “clearly a very dangerous person who represents a genuine risk to the public”.

He confined Cutler to a secure psychiatric unit at a hospital indefinitely.

In a victim impact statement, Mr Joyner described the incident as “like a horror film without the music”.

He said: “People think that I have coped well with the trauma and the grief but the nights alone are lonely and I struggle to sleep. I was angry about this senseless killing, which has turned my life upside down.”