UK road runner Swede jailed over stabbing

A Swedish woman has been jailed for five years by a UK court for the manslaughter of a man she met shortly after she and her twin sister made a dash into oncoming traffic on the M6 motorway.

• Swedish twin sisters in UK motorway madness (26 Sep 08)

Sabina Eriksson, 41, a Swedish national residing in County Cork, Ireland, had admitted the killing of Glenn Hollinshead in Stoke-on-Trent in central England on May 20th 2008 in a previous hearing, claiming diminished responsibility, the BBC reports.

The Luton Crown Court heard that Eriksson suffered from a rare psychiatric disorder before passing sentence.

Eriksson leapt to internet infamy when shocking images were released in September 2008 depicting Eriksson, and her twin sister Ursula, walking along the central reservation of the M6 motorway near Keele services, in Staffordshire, on May 17th 2008.

The duo then take a sudden plunge into oncoming traffic where Sabina is hit by a car. Ursula is later hit by truck after making a second dash onto the motorway and spent the following seven weeks in hospital recovering from her injuries.

Sabina Eriksson punched a police officer in the melee and it eventually took six officers to restrain her.

She spent the following day in custody and appeared in front of Fenton Magistrates' Court charged with assaulting a police officer on May 29th, the same day that she was to cross paths with the unfortunate Glenn Hollinshead.

Hollinshead met Sabina Eriksson while she was walking home from a pub in Stoke-on-Trent. He took pity on her and invited her to stay at his home, the BBC reports.

The next morning she stabbed him four times, killing him.

The mentally disturbed woman was later seen by witnesses banging herself on the head with a hammer before jumping 12 metres from a bridge on to the A50 near the city.

In passing judgement Mr Justice Saunders recognised that the punishment may seem lenient to the family of the deceased.

"However, I have sentenced on the basis that the reason for the killing was the mental illness and therefore the culpability of the defendant is low and therefore the sentence I have passed is designed to protect the public," he said.