McFadyen was killed about six months after Fernandes began living with him and his partner Jenny Holmwood in 2025 as a tenant.
That year, Fernandes had failed exams at the University of East Anglia. His mental state then deteriorated over the summer months.
On 4 November, at 04:05 GMT, he called 999 and requested an ambulance to the home in Layer Close, in Bowthorpe.
He also messaged a friend claiming McFadyen had poisoned him and that he “thought he was going to die”. He then transferred her £8,778.
Prosecutor William Carter said Fernandes told the operator he “wasn’t sure what had happened but he needed help”.
McFadyen and Holmwood were woken by the noise and blue flashing lights and Carter said Fernandes was described as looking “like a madman”.
Paramedics persuaded Fernandes to go back inside, but when he did, he took a knife from a kitchen drawer and stabbed McFadyen in a “frenzied” attack, Carter said.
Both paramedics pressed their panic buttons to summon police “shouting there was a knife”, with officers on scene at 04:48.
McFadyen was pronounced dead at the scene.
Fernandes was initially arrested on suspicion of murder and taken to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. He was heard saying to the paramedics “I’m going to die, I’m a monster”.
Prosecutors later accepted his plea to manslaughter by diminished responsibility.
In her victim impact statement read to the court, Kelly McFadyen said her father had been a constant help after her son died by suicide aged 17, six months earlier.
Lucy Bennett, the daughter of McFadyen’s partner, said they “were not aware of Fernandes’ mental health history”.
She said that her brother had recently taken his own life and had cited the court case as a factor.
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