A 70-year-old man, who shot dead five people during a one-day “orgy of terror” in 1978, admits possessing firearms and making an improvised explosive device.
Former Broadmoor patient Harry Street, who was released from indefinite detention in the mid-1990s, was caught with the makeshift bomb at his home last year and was sentenced to indefinite detention under the mental health act at Birmingham Crown Court.
More than 50 home-made bullets, two pistols and a revolver were also discovered at the 70-year-old gun fanatic’s mid-terrace house in Birmingham.
Mr Street, originally called Barry Williams, was detained under mental health laws in 1979 for the manslaughter of three neighbours in West Bromwich and a couple who ran a filling station in Warwickshire.
The pensioner, of Hazelville Road, Hall Green, had been due to stand trial at Birmingham crown court accused of making an improvised explosive device and possessing two pistols and a revolver with intent to endanger life.
But Street changed his plea and admitted possessing the explosive device, while the crown accepted his not guilty pleas to four other charges.
The multiple killer had already pleaded guilty at previous hearings to three charges of possessing a prohibited firearm and a count of putting a neighbour in fear of violence between 2009 and 2013. Mr Street’s trial was due to hear evidence from his neighbours in Hall Green, as well as two survivors of his 1978 shooting spree.
In submissions to the court last week, which could not previously be reported, prosecutor Michael Duck QC said the decision not to proceed with four of the charges had been taken after consultation with witnesses.
Crown lawyers had also taken into account the “overwhelming likelihood” that Street will again be detained indefinitely in a secure hospital, Mr Duck added.
Street, who is being treated at the high-security Ashworth Hospital on Merseyside, pleaded guilty to making the device between January and October last year.
He had earlier admitted throwing items at neighbour Warren Smith’s roof, banging on and drilling into walls late at night, making threats towards him and driving past his new address after he had moved out.
How Harry Street once killed five people in a shooting spree
Firearms fanatic Harry Street's merciless killing spree in 1978 claimed five lives and prompted front-page headlines which shocked Britain.
Mr Street was detained in Broadmoor indefinitely in March 1979 after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of his victims on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
The foundry worker's attacks on members of the public were only halted after a 30-mile high-speed car chase across Derbyshire's Peak District.
Following his arrest by officers who overpowered him, more than 900 live bullet cartridges and a 0.22-calibre pistol were found stashed inside Mr Street's Ford Capri.
He began his rampage at about 7pm on 26 October 1978, with the "matter-of-fact" killing of three of his neighbours, George Burkitt, his wife Iris and their son Philip.
Mr and Mrs Burkitt were both shot in the head, while their son was shot through the heart.
Mr Street also gunned down the Burkitts' 17-year-old daughter Jill, who survived despite being hit in the back and thigh by five bullets after opening the door of the family's home on West Bromwich's Bustleholme Mill estate.
The initial rampage - in which 23 rounds were discharged from a Smith and Wesson handgun - also saw another neighbour shot in the chest and shoulder.
Mr Street then drove to Stockingford, near Nuneaton, where he killed Michel and Lisa Di Maria, an Italian-born couple who ran a petrol station, by firing shots through the window of an office.
After the shootings, it emerged that Mr Street, then aged 34, had a firearms certificate for a semi-automatic weapon he used legitimately at gun club ranges.
Two charges of attempted murder were ordered to lie on the file by a judge at Stafford Crown Court in March 1979, who described Mr Street's crimes as a "dreadful series of events" driven by mental illness.
Psychiatric experts told the court Mr Street had an active paranoid psychosis requiring hospital treatment.
Mr Street's release, after he was deemed safe to be returned to the community, also attracted significant media attention.
A decision in 1994 to allow him to live in a bail hostel around six miles away from the scene of the West Bromwich shootings was described as "crass, insensitive and dangerous" by a local MP.
One of Mr Street's original victims also voiced anger at the decision to free Mr Street.