A MAN who cleaned up a murder scene has been sectioned indefinitely in a secure mental unit.

Lee Black was found guilty of assisting an offender at the same time as his co-defendant, Mark Bartholomew, was convicted of murdering Barrow dad Andy Hackett.

Their trial took place in August and after deliberating for around three hours the pair were both found guilty.

The jury had heard how Bartholomew and Black were both arrested shortly after the body of dad-of-three Andy Hackett was found in a back alley behind Gloucester Street in Barrow on December 10 of last year.

Following a minor disagreement over synthetic cannabis Spice, Bartholomew stabbed Mr Hackett through the heart in the upstairs bedroom at the home he shared with Black in Gloucester Street.

He then dragged Mr Hackett's body outside into the back street.

Black then cleaned up the murder scene by wiping blood from the floor, walls and skirting boards. Black called for an ambulance but by the time paramedics arrived Mr Hackett was already dead.

After Bartholomew left his victim to die in the back street he fled the scene and was found collapsed close to Cavendish Dock where he had thrown the murder weapon, a huge kitchen knife, and other vital evidence.

That evidence was later retrieved by detectives and forensic tests carried out helped to prove Bartholomew had been the one who stabbed Mr Hackett with such force he broke his ribs.

Bartholomew was described as "a drug dealer who ensured those around him were hooked on the drugs he sold and shamelessly wielded that power to control and intimidate them".

Bartholomew was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 24 years and yesterday at Preston Crown Court Black appeared to be sentenced.

Since his first appearance in court last December Black has been detained at the Guild Lodge secure mental unit.

The 39-year-old suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and was allowed to be absent from most of the trial. When he did appear in the dock he sat far away from Bartholomew flanked by three psychiatric nurses.

The Honorary Recorder of Preston, Judge Mark Brown, yesterday sentenced Black to a hospital order, also referred to as a Section 37.

The order means he will be detained at Guild Lodge, which is near Ribchester, until mental health professionals deem he is no longer mentally unstable.

The courts can use Section 37 if they think a convict should be in hospital instead of prison. A restriction order, Section 41, can also be added if the individual is considered to be a risk to the public but this was not deemed necessary in Black's case.

After the sentencing, Black's barrister, Bob Elias, told The Mail the trial had been "grotesque" and agreed his client was in "the best place".

Mr Elias said: "Bartholomew was a monster. It was a grotesque trial."