A FATHER who knifed his daughter to death in Bournemouth for being "disrespectful" told doctors: "It's honour, it's about honour".

Faleh Ghazi Albasman was today sentenced to an indefinite hospital order after he admitted stabbing Kuwaiti student Mashael at their home in St Michael’s Road, denying a count of murder but pleading guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Mashael, who was 24, had come to the UK in November last year to study English.

Her body was found on March 30 this year, and she had sustained 13 stab wounds, which experts said were likely to have been inflicted as her father stood behind her.

Officers believe that Albasman, 59, then used a second knife to stab himself in the stomach and cut his neck before he washed his hands, put on an undamaged t-shirt and left the flat.

He walked to the entrance of the Manchester Hotel and asked staff to call police before returning to the flat where his daughter's body lay.

After being taken to Southampton Hospital, Albasman told a consultant surgeon who speaks Arabic: "I was too brave and I stabbed myself".

He also told the surgeon: "I have finished her", adding: "What's the law here to murder for honour? Tell them it's honour, it's about honour".

Following his treatment, he was transferred to custody, and told police Mashael had "shouted" at him and threatened to stab him.

He added that Mashael had been speaking on her mobile phone, which was “inappropriate” in his culture.

“That was very disrespectful,” he told officers, admitting that he was "boiling with anger".

"Mashael broke my heart," he said.

"A girl should not treat good men like me, decent men, in that way".

Albasman was in a near-fatal road accident in the 1970s, and doctors believe he suffered brain damage.

Prosecutor Kerry Maylin said the knife used to kill Mashael was at least nine centimetres in length.

"Mashael was lying face down, half on the bed and half off of it, and the broken bloodstained knife was found next to her body," she said.

Majed Alsaad, who helped Albasman and Mashael to find accommodation when they arrived in Bournemouth, described the victim as "reserved, unhappy and shy", and Ms Maylin said: "She had indicated to him that she had wanted to be in the UK on her own but felt repressed by her family."

Sentencing, Judge Nigel Teare said a prison sentence was "not appropriate".

"You will only be discharged from hospital with the consent of the Secretary of State," he said.

The judge added that police had found no evidence that Mashael had behaved inappropriately and said Albasman had been experiencing “paranoid delusions” which saw him imagine he had relationships with royalty.

“You were disinhibited by a psychotic illness, and that led to an outburst of fatal aggression,” he said.