A SADISTIC double murder who was obsessed with serial killers would be better off in a secure hospital, a leading forensic psychologist has said.

James Fairweather was handed two life sentences and will spend at least 27 years behind bars for brutally stabbing two people to death in Colchester when he was just 15.

He stabbed James Attfield 102 times near Colchester’s Castle Park in March 2014 and knifed Nahid Almanea 16 times on the town’s Salary Brook Trail two months later.

The trial heard he had researched killers including Ian Huntley and Myra Hindley and Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe.

Fairweather, who has autism, admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, claiming he believed he was possessed by the devil and heard voices that compelled him to kill.

Dr Keri Nixon, a consultant forensic psychologist, has explored the case for new TV show Britain’s Deadliest Kids.

Dr Nixon said Fairweather was bullied at secondary school.

She said: “He was a victim of bullies and that anger boiled up inside him.”

She believes his anger was made worse by playing violent computer games and watching violent films and pornography.

She said: “They desensitise and this was somebody who was already an angry young man and watching these violent things fuelled his anger.”

A jury convicted him of two counts of murder after an expert told the trial that Fairweather’s description of the hallucinations sounded like something plucked from a horror film.

Dr Nixon agreed his behaviour seemed to suggest he is a manipulative character. But she said an armed robbery committed in the months before the killings would not have been enough to suggest he would become a serial killer.

She said: “One thing which was interesting for me when I was doing my research is about the voices he said he heard.

“There was no mention of that anywhere in pre sentence report for the armed robbery.”

But Dr Nixon said: “For this young man prison is not the right place.

“He is a complex character, who has autism spectrum disorder.

“He seemed to do better when he did go to [hospital] before the trial. He seemed to respond well to treatment.

“I think hospital would have been a better place.”

  • Britain’s Deadliest Kids airs Saturdays at 10pm on Quest Red and on the QuestOD app