A GRANDFATHER stabbed his next door neighbour to death after she said hello to his wife over the garden fence.

Thomas Bevan who harboured paranoid grudges against his neighbours in a quiet Little Hulton street - stabbed and slashed Jacqueline Probert more than 15 times with a carving knife and a bread knife after flying into a rage.

Truck driver Bevan also attacked his wife, Ann, in a row which took place after he heard her exchanging pleasantries with 53-year-old Mrs Probert.

A Bolton inquest into the death of Mrs Probert was told that Bevans wife would also have been killed in the incident on August 28 last year if it had not been for the heroic actions of two neighbours who shielded her.

Bevan was charged with murder but, before his trial, he hanged himself in Strangeways Prison on November 11.

The inquest on Tuesday heard that Bevan, aged 55, who had lived next door to Mrs Probert and her husband Bernard for many years in Jonquil Drive, ran amok with the knives after Mrs Probert said "hello sweetheart" to Bevan's wife.

The brief exchange was overheard by Bevan and sent him into a rage.

Det Sgt Bruce Stead, of Salford CID told the inquest: "Mr Bevan was a paranoid sort of man - of the opinion that the neighbours were against him and always talking about him."

The Bevans began arguing in the evening and Mrs Bevan, who married her husband after his first wife died, rang her stepdaughter Louise asking for help.

But Bevan, the inquest heard, smashed his wife over the head from behind with an object. Wearing only her nightdress she staggered into the street to escape.

Louise's boyfriend David Norrey arrived on the scene and saw Mr Bevan jump over the fence between his house and the Proberts' home.

He followed Bevan into the kitchen of their neighbours home and found Mrs Probert, who weighed just over seven stones, unconscious on the floor with Bevan standing over her with a carving knife and bread knife in his hands.

Bevan ordered Mr Norrey out of the house and then went hunting for Mr Probert, who was asleep upstairs.

Police officers told the inquest that Mr Probert was only saved from being killed because the bedroom door was jammed shut and Bevan could not open it.

The inquest heard that two minutes later Bevan appeared outside the house, again brandishing the blood stained knives, and ran towards his wife.

But alerted by the noise outside neighbours Heidi and Joseph Scales came to Mrs Bevan's aid.

In a statement read out at the inquest Mrs Scales said: "I put my arms around her and held her. Her legs gave way and she slumped against me."

Mrs Bevan, who was complaining her head hurt, told her: "I'm going to God now. The angels have come for me."

Mr Scales, the Coroner heard, then spotted the knives Bevan was wielding and shouted to his wife to get out of the way.

But when she refused he stood between Bevan and the two women and was involved in an struggle as the knifeman attampted to get past him.

Bevan managed to smash his wife's over the back of her head and cut Mrs Scales across the hand but Mr Scales refused to give up in the struggle.

He told the inquest: "I was determined to protect Ann.

"I heard my wife shout my name and I just went for him. I rushed him from behind and grabbed his wrists."

He eventually wrestled Bevan to the ground and kept him pinned to the pavement until police arrived.

Mr Scales told the inquest that Bevan continually ranted about his wife and the neighbours, accusing them of laughing at him and his wife of lying.

Paramedics took Mrs Probert to the Royal Bolton Hospital, but despite efforts to revive her she was pronounced dead a short time later.

A post mortem examination later revealed that the customer services assistant, who worked at Asda in Farnworth, had been slashed and stabbed more than 15 times.

Her hands were cut showing she had made a valiant attempt to protect herself from Bevan's onslaught, but she had bled to death within two minutes from a series of stab wounds in her neck which had severed an artery.

Bevan, who had no criminal record and no history of mental illness, was arrested by police, but when questioned by detectives would only reply "no comment".

But as he was formally charged he launched into a rant during which he admitted what he had done, showed no regret and claimed his neighbours had put him "through torment all these years".

Heidi and Joseph Scales were praised by coroner Jennifer Leeming who told them: "The courage which you both displayed on that night was of the highest order and deserves public recognition. You have my utmost personal respect."

Recording a verdict that Mrs Probert had been "unlawfully killed" Mrs Leeming praised the actons of Mrs and Mrs Scales.

She said: "I think most people would find it difficult in the circumstances in which you found yourselves to behave as you did. Clearly your intervention prevented further tragedy."