A mail worker who stabbed a woman colleague in the head six times with a screwdriver after smoking skunk cannabis has been detained indefinitely.

Ashraf Khan went berserk after colleagues at a sorting office noticed he had been acting strangely for weeks.

He shouted and ranted about his beliefs and the Koran before pulling the weapon from his kaftan.

Khan then attacked his colleague Mbakdo Ceesay who had innocently asked him how he was.

She was stabbed six times in the head as other workers at Hays DX in Crawley tried to pull him off her.

Khan then went for his manager hitting him in the face with a roll of cellophane shrink wrap.

Miss Ceesay was taken to hospital where her wounds were stitched and glued together.

Khan, 27, later told police: “She made me angry. I don’t like her, she should be dead.

“I stabbed her in the head to take her brains out.”

Paul Walker, prosecuting, said Khan has been kept in prison or at a secure mental health unit since the attack in September 2006.

Khan has been diagnosed as schizophrenic but has tricked doctors and prison staff into thinking he is “normal” so he would not have to be hospitalised.

Khan, of Martyrs Avenue, Crawley, admitted wounding with intent, common assault and possessing cannabis and appeared at Hove Crown Court for sentence yesterday.

Christian Wassunna, defending, said Khan is a father of two who came from Pakistan in 2000.

Mr Wassunna said after Khan was sepearted from his family he tried to steal two children from their mother in a park believing they were his own even though they were white.

He also believed that his television set was talking to him, the court heard.

Mr Wassunna added: “He deeply regrets his actions.

“He is not entirely at fault because doctors have now confirmed that he has a mental heath disorder.

“At times he has tried to make himself appear normal because he does not want to be in hospital.”

Two psychiatrists at Ashen Hill Secure Unit, Hailsham, where Khan is being treated confirmed that he suffers from schizo affective disoder.

Judge Anthony Niblett made a hospital order under Section 41 of the Mental Heath Act detaining Khan indefinitely to protect the public.

Khan will not be released until doctors and the Ministry of Justice agree that it is safe for him to be set free.