A MAN who killed a pensioner in a "premeditated" and "frenzied" knife attack could be considered for release just six months after being sentenced.

At Maidstone Crown Court today, Judge Andrew Patience, QC, said it was not certain what form of mental illness had driven Sherzad Muhamed to stab 66-year-old Richard Cromarty more than 20 times at his bedsit in Kingsley Road, Maidstone, in July 2003.

However, he said experts agreed that Muhamed certainly suffered from some form of "relapsing and remitting psychotic illness" and that he still posed a potential risk to the public.

Sentencing Muhamed to life imprisonment for manslaughter, Judge Patience ruled the killer would serve a minimum term of five years.

The judge said the four and a half years Muhamed had already served in custody would be deducted from the jail term.

Addressing Muhamed directly, he added: "I do not want to raise your hopes that you will be released when you first come to be considered for release.

"The parole board will have an acutely difficult decision to make."

Sherzad Muhamed was jailed for life in 2004 after being found guilty of the murder of Mr Cromarty, but won an appeal in December 2006 on the grounds of diminished responsibility.