Daniel Gonzalez (spree killer)

Daniel Gonzalez, who had an English mother and Spanish father, was educated at Gordons School, a privately run school in West end, Woking. His parents separated in 1986 when he was six years old.[1] Gonzalez left school with eight GCSEs and was known to be a good actor, a chess champion, but also a "dark and troubled boy."[4] From the age of 17, Gonzalez received care because of his psychological problems and was treated by specialist mental health teams.[5] By the age of 24, he was unemployed and using drugs. He spent all his time playing computer games and watching horror films.[6]

On 15 September 2004, Gonzalez told 61-year-old Peter King, who was walking his dog with his wife in Hilsea, Portsmouth, that he was going to kill him.[7] He was fought off and fled to Hove, where he stabbed 76-year-old Marie Harding while wearing a hockey mask, similar to the character Jason Voorhees. When the mask was taken in for evidence, it had Harding's DNA on it.[8] After killing Harding, he returned to his home in Woking. He concluded that the reason for his failure to kill King was because his knife was too small.

Two days later, on 17 September 2004, Gonzalez travelled to Tottenham. At 5:30 am he left 46-year-old Kevin Molloy for dead after stabbing him in the face, neck and torso with a pair of large knives he had stolen from a department store. At 7:00 am he made a forced entry into the Hornsey house of Koumis Constantino, but was fought off after stabbing his arm.[9] By 8:00 am he was in Highgate, where he randomly tried to gain access to houses. He murdered an elderly couple, Derek and Jean Robinson,[10] an experience he claimed was "orgasmic".[11]

Gonzalez was arrested at 12:00 pm on 17 September 2004 at Tottenham Court Road Underground station after a decorator, who had seen him running naked and covered in blood from the Robinsons' house, reported him to the police.[9] Whilst awaiting trial at Broadmoor Hospital, Berkshire, Gonzalez tried to bite himself to death and was viewed as being so dangerous that officers would accompany him in riot gear.[4]

At the trial, Gonzalez tried to claim that he was not guilty by reason of insanity, although this was rejected.[12] He was given six life sentences, with the trial judge recommending that he should never be released.[13]

After his arrest, Gonzalez attempted to kill himself by biting through an artery in his arm. 'I have never seen anyone bite himself with that ferocity,' said the inspecting doctor.[14] He survived but killed himself by suicide in his cell in Broadmoor Hospital, on 9 August 2007 by cutting himself with the edges of a broken CD case in his prison cell.[15][16]