A serial killer who murdered a Sussex pensioner as he lived out a fantasy of becoming movie slasher Freddy Krueger has killed himself behind bars.

Daniel Gonzalez, 26, who brutally knifed to death 73-year-old Brighton and Hove Albion ticket seller Marie Harding, was found dead inside Broadmoor Hospital.

Last night Mrs Harding's daughter, speaking publicly for the first time since her mother was murdered, said she hoped he had died "a slow and painful death".

Gonzalez was given six life sentences last March for hacking to death four strangers and trying to kill two others during a three day orgy of violence.

The crazed killer believed he really was Freddy Krueger, the star of horror film Nightmare On Elm Street, and set out to murder ten people so he would be remembered forever.

He slashed Mrs Harding's throat and stabbed her in the back as she walked to her home in Highdown, Southwick, on September 15 2004.

Mrs Harding's daughter, Julie Harris, speaking exclusively to The Argus, told how her family could now finally try to move on.

Speaking exclusively to The Argus from her home in Oakdene Crescent in Mile Oak, Southwick, she said: "We are all pleased that he has died.

"I hope it was a slow and painful death.

"It is something I have been hoping for for a long time.

"The hatred towards him never goes away and there will never be forgiveness.

"We get so many reminders of the murder and every little thing brings it all back.

"I was at the funeral of one of mum's sisters this morning and all the pain came back to me.

"We are all still grieving and don't ever think we will not be."

Gonzales, of Woking, was considered one of the most dangerous patients at the maximum security hospital.

It has been reported he was found in a pool of blood by guards after using the sharp edges of a shattered CD case to slash his wrists at 8.30am on Thursday.

After killing Mrs Harding, the psychopath murdered pub landlord Kevin Molloy, 46, in Tottenham, north London on September 17.

One the same day, he broke into the home of paediatrician Derek Robinson, 76, and wife Jean, 68, in Highgate, north London, and killed them both.

He tried to kill Peter King, 61, near Port Creek in Portsmouth on September 15, and Koumis Constantino, 59, in Hornsey, north London, on September 17.

Mrs Harding's friend, Liz Costa, who is vice chairwoman of Brighton and Hove Supporters Club, said she was relieved Gonzales was dead.

She said: "It is good riddance to him because someone like that does not deserve any sort of sympathy at all.

"I don't think he was suffering at all. He was the architect of his own demise.

"He has ruined the lives of some friends of mine.

"He was a horrible man and I have seen what the families have gone through and people do not deserve that.

"All I'm interested in is his victim's families and friends who have suffered along the way."

Gonzales claimed he was mentally ill long before he embarked on his killing spree.

Months before he killed Mrs Harding, he wrote to doctors begging to be locked up.

Two days before he committed the first murder his mother, Lesley Savage, rang the police asking for their intervention after he was seen running naked in the street.

Last night Marjorie Wallace, the chief executive of the mental health charity SANE, said: "The death of Daniel Gonzalez in Broadmoor Hospital is a sad outcome in a series of preventable tragedies.

"Daniel Gonzalez and his family were let down by multiple failures in the mental health services and by those supervising his care in the community."

But Mrs Harris rubbished claims Gonzales was anything but a cold blooded killer.

She said: "Anyone who says he was mentally ill does not know what they are talking about.

"I would like to see how they would feel if they were in our position."