Darlington officer scissor attacker Lee Dixon detained
A man who threatened to kill two police officers and stabbed them with a sharpened scissor blade has been given an indefinite hospital order.
Lee Dixon, 22, attacked PC John Wood and PC Carl Wood after he was stopped in Darlington in August 2011.
The pair, who are not related, told Teesside Crown Court they felt they were fighting for their lives.
Dixon, a paranoid schizophrenic, admitted two counts of wounding with intent to resist lawful arrest.
He also pleaded guilty to possession of a knife and cannabis.
The court heard that Dixon first leapt at PC Carl Wood, 26, and kept on fighting, repeatedly shouting "I'll kill you", even after 40-year-old PC John Wood intervened.
'Fighting for lives'
The officers twice used pepper spray on him but this failed to subdue him.
Pc John Wood was then stabbed in the arm with a sharpened scissor blade Dixon had hidden in the seat of his bicycle.
Richard Bennett, prosecuting, said: "Both officers genuinely believed at that stage that they were now in a fight for their lives.
"The defendant moved the knife directly towards John Wood's face. The point was only 3cm from his eyes.
"The defendant was making a determined effort to stab him in the face.
"Carl Wood managed to pull the defendant away from his brother officer."
The younger officer was then stabbed, first in the arm, then in the back of the neck, and slashed across his left cheek.
Fellow officers then arrived on the scene, and it took six of them to handcuff Dixon and get him into a police van.
Both officers had to be treated in hospital, but were able to return to work a week later.
Judge Tony Briggs commended them for their "considerable bravery".
He told Dixon: "It is plain that you are suffering from a serious mental disorder and as a result of that you remain a danger to the public."