THE mother of a man accused of murder broke down in tears as she told jurors how she pleaded with experts to section her son before he knifed Don Lock to death.

Lynda Daley told jurors at the trial of her son Matthew that she had made desperate attempts to get her son better treatment for his mental health.

Her 39-year-old son accepts that he stabbed Mr Lock, 79, after a minor shunt between their two cars but denies murder, saying he felt threatened and wanted to defend himself.

On Monday, the court heard how mental health experts looking after him had apologised for failings in his care.

Yesterday at Lewes Crown Court, Mrs Daley said the day her son allegedly murdered Mr Lock on the side of the A24 near Findon was “the day that all your nightmares came true”.

She said: “We asked for him to be sectioned many times – going to casualty many, many times crying, pleading, trying to stop him getting out of Accident and Emergency.

She added: “It has been constant. For the last 10 years we have pleaded with people to help and it has been on a regular basis and on a day-to-day basis.

“It could be weeks and weeks where we are at high anxiety worrying about Matthew, where he is, what he is going to do.

“I used to drive to work every morning with the radio on to listen if there had been any incident or someone had been found.”

She said Daley had huge debt problems, his relationship with his girlfriend had broken down recently and he was “close to being on the edge” in the run up to the killing.

Prosecuting, Philip Bennetts QC told the trial on Monday that a psychiatrist to be called by the prosecution concluded Daley had a diagnosis of autism with episodes of psychosis, but was not psychotic at the time of the killing.

He said the defence expert evidence was that Daley was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time.

Mrs Daley said an apology from the chief executive of Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, who said Daley’s care “should have been better”, was “10 years too late”.

Daley, formerly of St Elmo Road, Worthing, denies murder.

The trial, before judge Mr Justice Singh, is expected to last about two weeks.

‘I WOKE UP AND HAD A SICK FEELING’

LYNDA Daley had not gone to work on the morning her son knifed a 79-year-old stranger to death.

At her son’s murder trial yesterday, she told jurors: “I woke up on Thursday and just had this sick feeling inside me that I needed to be home.

“I could not put my finger on it. I was not sick; I did not have a headache but was so agitated myself; so worried that something was going to happen.”

Her family had noticed a deterioration in their son’s mental health in the run up to the killing of Don Lock on July 16 last year, and she told jurors how he was stressed due to “huge debts” and breaking up with his girlfriend.

Her son heard voices and was delusional, she said, and she and her husband, John, had spent the past 10 years trying to get better mental health treatment for him.

He did not like to tell people he was hearing voices, she added, and would “put the barriers up” if asked about himself.

She said the more stressed her son was, the more anxious he became, and agreed with his defence barrister that as stress built up he could “explode”.

She and her husband regularly pleaded with doctors for her son to be treated. She told how she used to drive to work with the radio on to listen out for any incidents, worrying that he might be involved because he was unwell and delusional.

She explained: “If there had been, then John and I would be on the phone – have you seen Matthew, we are worried about Matthew. It has been like that for the last 10 years.”

Mrs Daley said her son frequently misinterpreted other people and had delusions of voices saying nasty things about him outside his flat in St Elmo Road, Worthing.

He called police so often about them that they warned him they would charge him with wasting their time, so he tended to stay away from his flat, spending time with his horse, Honey, and pet goats.

Her son would often go running for hours on end in an attempt to alleviate his condition, she told jurors, often with his goats.

He had learned when very stressed to “have a deep bath”, but said he could not do that in the run up to the attack because he had not paid his gas bill.

Her son only had a tub of margarine in the kitchen on the day of the killing, she said, but he always made sure his animals were well fed, saying they were “therapeutic for him”.

Matthew Daley’s sister, Rebecca, told jurors yesterday that days before the killing her brother seemed “nervous and anxious, in his manner and the way he spoke to mum”.

She added: “I was quite angry with him because I hadn’t seen him like that for a long time.

“I said to mum straight after he left that, ‘He’s such a manipulative f***’.”

Her brother had a “huge ability to love,” she said, adding he had been unwell throughout her adult life.

Mrs Daley told the court she feared her son was involved in the killing of Don Lock when she turned on her television and it happened in Findon.

She fought back tears as she said: “I felt physically sick.

“I couldn’t believe it but, because of where it was, my heart sunk and all I kept thinking was ‘We tried our best’.”

Her son later told her during a phone call: “I killed someone”, before adding: “I want you to think about what I just said and ring me back in 10 minutes.”

Daley, of St Elmo Road, Worthing, denies murdering Don Lock on the A24 near Findon on July 16 last year, saying he felt threatened and wanted to protect himself.

The trial continues.