A former Whitehaven man who admitted attempting to murder his brother in a horrifying knife attack has died in hospital, says the victim.

Tony Murphy, 30, whose life had to be saved in an emergency operation, contacted the News & Star to say that his brother Gary died while being held in a psychiatric hospital in the north east.

Gary Murphy was given a compulsory hospital order after he admitted attempting to stab Tony to death in 2016.

Their mother Alison Murphy, then 52, was also convicted of being part of the plot to kill Tony. Yet he has consistently supported her claim to be innocent. She is serving a 17-year jail term.

Tony has vowed to write to the Queen in the hope of highlighting her case, insisting that her conviction at Carlisle Crown Court was a miscarriage of justice.

Tony said: “Gary was being treated at Roseberry Park Hospital in Middlesbrough. They let my mum go to the funeral - and they let me sit next to her, but she was in handcuffs.

“It’s upsetting. My brother never told me why he did it.”

Tony said he does not know how his brother died and an inquest will in due course examine the circumstances. During the court hearings there was evidence that Gary Murphy battled with severe mental health issues.

He had fantasised about suicide and violence.

Ever since his mum was convicted, Tony has campaigned to get her conviction overturned, insisting that on the day of the stabbing, as he lay gravely ill and bleeding profusely, it was she who called an ambulance.

She gave him first aid, stemming his bleeding. Tony, formerly of Cleator Moor, added: “I don’t want my mum to be in prison. She shouldn’t be there.

“She saved my life.

“I’m going to write to the Queen to see if that makes a difference. I’ve been speaking to my mum on the phone. With coronavirus she’s spending 23 hours a day in her cell. She just wants to get out and get her life back.”

Last year, it emerged that Alison Murphy’s cell at Low Newton Prison, Durham, was next to that occupied by the notorious killer Rose West.

Tony said the two had worked together at the prison as cleaners, but his mother was moved to a different cell after the News & Star ran its story, he said.

During Alison Murphy’s trial, the jury heard about incriminating text messages sent from her phone to Gary as he made his way to her house before the attack.

One said: “I definitely think he should be killed but not sure stabbing is the right method. We should make him fall in the harbour or off a cliff.”

Tony later said that he sent the messages after his mum left her phone on a sideboard. He wanted to hide his presence at the house so Gary would visit, he said.

In court he said that he “probably” sent the messages but later explained he did not say he “definitely” sent them because the format in which the text messages were shown to him was confusing. He stands by his claims.