A MAN has been found guilty of murdering a pensioner in south Shropshire.

Moses Christensen has been found guilty at Stafford Crown Court of the murder of 70-year-old Richard Hall, who was stabbed to death last summer on Shropshire’s Brown Clee Hill.

Christensen, from Stourbridge, had denied murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Adjourning the case until March 16, Mr Justice Pepperall told 22-year-old Christensen: “I am going to delay sentencing.

“But understand this. There is only one sentence that can be passed and that is a sentence of life imprisonment.”

Moses Christensen was unanimously convicted of murder after the jury panel had deliberated for less than three hours.

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Following the verdict, the court was told further psychiatric evidence would be presented to the judge before the sentencing hearing, to be held at Birmingham Crown Court.

The court was also told the verdict meant there was “no basis in law” for the court to pass an interim hospital order.

During the week-long trial at Stafford Crown Court has been told 70-year-old Richard Hall was stabbed more than 20 times by Moses Christensen, who was living rough in the days leading up to the killing.

Christensen, of Corser Street, Stourbridge, West Midlands, told police after the stabbing that he had carried it out “just for the sake of killing somebody”, near the summit of Shropshire’s Brown Clee Hill, between Ludlow and Bridgnorth.