Headbutt fear led man to stab mother to death, court told

Police at the scene of the killing. Picture / Daily Examiner, Grafton

A mentally ill man fatally stabbed his mother because he feared she would headbutt him to death, a court has been told.

New Zealander Joshua Francis Green, 30, has been charged with murdering his mother in the New South Wales town Yamba last Friday.

It is alleged he stabbed her in the chest with a knife a number of times, the Northern Star newspaper at Lismore reported. She has not been named.

Police told the court that Green had been a recent patient at the Richmond Clinic in Lismore after being being diagnosed with schizophrenia three years ago. His income came from sickness benefits.

For the past month he had been living with his mother in the coastal town, and on Friday he had watched television with her until they decided to go fishing at the beach.

She had gone to her bedroom to change while he went to have a cigarette.

Green later told police that he feared for his safety as his mother had been looking at him strangely.

He said he thought she was going to kill him by headbutting him, so he went to the kitchen and selected a paring-style short-handled knife from knife drawer.

He had walked into his mother's bedroom, confronted her, and allegedly stabbed her eight to 10 times around and in the heart area.

Green told police his mother had fallen to the floor.

He had walked back to the kitchen, washed the knife and returned it to the kitchen drawer, then placed his mother in a wheelie bin and rolled it outside into a line-up of other bins, the court heard.

Green claimed to have placed rubbish from the other bins on top of his mother's body, police said. He had cleaned the bedroom floor and the hallway with a wet mop, had changed his shirt and had a shower, before smoking a number of cigarettes.

The police's evidence said he had then climbed the stairs to a neighbour's apartment and spoken to a man. Green and the man had walked downstairs to investigate. The man inspected the bin but had not seen the body because it was covered by rubbish, and returned to his apartment.

Green called the emergency operator and allegedly confessed he had murdered his mother by stabbing her and that he had put her body in a bin.

Police found the body in the bin, and Green had allegedly made a full confession, in which he also told police he was taking his Dolian tablets regularly, the court was told.

Green was yesterday remanded in custody to appear in the Grafton Local Court on March 7. He did not apply for bail.

- NZPA