AN INTRUDER who smashed his way into a radio station before broadcasting obscenities on air was found not guilty of burglary by reason of insanity.

Birmingham Crown Court heard that Lee Phillips thought he was acting under orders from US President Barack Obama when he embarked on a £25,000 wrecking spree at the offices of Galaxy FM.

A trial jury also cleared Phillips of criminal damage after taking just 12 minutes to decide he was mentally ill at the time of the break-in last November.

Stefan Kolodynski, prosecuting, told the court Phillips was detained at Galaxy’s studio in Broad Street, Birmingham, in the early hours of November 17 after shattering numerous windows and a £1,000 plasma screen.

The two-hour trial also heard how Phillips had sworn while broadcasting, saying some “pretty strange things” and mentioning the names of some Galaxy FM presenters.

He later informed psychiatrists, who diagnosed him as suffering from schizophrenia, that he had been smoking cannabis and believed Galaxy had aired derogatory claims about him, while President Obama had sanctioned his “mission” at the empty studio. Phillips, of Birmingham, was said to have been suffering mental problems for several years.

Making an order Phillips be treated in a psychiatric hospital, Judge Roderick Henderson said: “It’s plain from everything I’ve heard you were very unwell at the time these things happened.”