A BOURNEMOUTH woman has admitted stabbing her 69-year-old mother to death in the street.

Ecila Henderson, 39, was charged with murder when her mother, retired teacher Rosemary Elaine Armstrong, was found dead outside a block of flats in Queensland Road, Pokesdown, last August.

On Friday, Henderson, formerly of Queensland Road, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter at Winchester Crown Court and was handed a hospital order by Judge Justice David Foskett.

This sentence was given on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Detectives at Dorset Police described the stabbing as a “tragic incident”.

A spokesman said: “We hope that the conclusion today will help the family and friends of the victim to move on.”

The quiet area of Queensland Road was thrown into chaos just after 1pm on August 28 last year when Mrs Armstrong, from Salisbury, was found outside the Queensland Lodge block of flats.

Part of the block is owned by Knightstone Housing Association and was home to Ecila Henderson and nine other “vulnerable” people.

Neighbours told the Daily Echo at the time how they had been alerted by terrible screams.

Detectives sealed off the area, and crime scene investigators also scoured a small area at the Christchurch Road entrance to Woodland Walk in their hunt for clues.

Mum-of-three Mrs Armstrong, known as Elaine by friends, was a regular churchgoer and history society member.

One of her daughters had died aged five, and Fiona Henderson, 41, lives abroad.

She described her mother as an elegant and compassionate woman who lived for her children and for other people.