UK man to be sentenced for 'Batman' murder bid

A man obsessed with the Batman villain the Joker will today be sentenced for attempting to murder a stranger in a UK leisure centre.

Dale Pipe asked “Why so serious?”, the phrase uttered by Heath Ledger’s character in the film The Dark Knight, after he attacked a man who was using a urinal at Belle Vue Leisure Centre, Consett, County Durham.

The former chef, who had armed himself with a number of knives, was then overpowered by staff and went onto barricade himself into a toilet.

His victim suffered multiple injuries and had to be airlifted to hospital for treatment.

Pipe admitted attempted murder and three charges of possessing an offensive weapon at a hearing in May.