Mass killer from 1970s dies in secure hospital

Harry Street, formerly Barry Williams. Credit: West Midlands Police

A mass killer who shot dead five people in 1978 has died in hospital while detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act.

Harry Street was known as Barry Williams when he killed three neighbours in West Bromwich, and a couple who owned a petrol station in Nuneaton.

Street was pronounced dead on Christmas Eve after being taken ill at the high-security Ashworth Hospital in Merseyside. It's thought he suffered a heart attack.

He was held at Broadmoor from 1979 after being diagnosed as suffering with paranoid schizophrenia. He had admitted five counts of manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility.

But he was freed in 1995 subject to monitoring, and moved to an address in Hall Green in Birmingham.

There he began a campaign of harassment against neighbours two years later.

The 'arsenal' of guns and explosives found at Harry Street's home Credit: West Midlands Police

West Midlands Police arrested Street in October last year after a "veritable arsenal" of guns and bullets was found in a cupboard at his home.

He was sentenced in October this year, and the judge ordered he pensioner to be detained in conditions of high security due to the nature of his previous offences and his ability to procure and modify weapons.

Read more: Timeline for the killer who changed his identity