Don Lock murder accused 'suffering symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia'

Dr Michael Lawson, consultant clinical psychologist at Hellingly medium secure unit, told a court he believed Matthew Daley had become a greater danger to others in the five years leading up to the attack.

Daley accepts killing retired solicitor Mr Lock on the side of the A24 near Findon after a shunt between their cars but denies murder, claiming diminished responsibility.

The 35-year-old said he felt threatened at the time of the incidents the evening of July 16 last year and that he needed to protect himself.

Dr Lawson, who said he spent 60-70 hours examining Daley, reading reports and talking to his family, told jurors at Lewes Crown Court yesterday: "I think if one takes the clinical picture and looks at all the evidence, particularly that which does not rely on that which Mr Daley self-reports, my conclusion was that at the time of the alleged offence he was in all likelihood beginning to break down, beginning to experience the acute symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia.

"Although I do not think he was at the point where he was completely incapacitated."

The prosecution says Daley had a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder with some psychosis, but that he was not psychotic at the time of the attack.

Dr Lawson said Daley's mental health started to seriously deteriorate when he was around 19 years old.

He said he understood from Daley's family that paranoia had led him to burn books at his mother's home and aggressively shave his head to "clear the voices".

Earlier, Mr Lock's widow Maureen Lock left the courtroom as a videoed police interview of Daley telling officers how he stabbed him was played to jurors.

Daley described feeling "threatened and afraid" as Mr Lock drove close behind him before the crash and said he saw Mr Lock in his rear view mirror looking "very angry".

He told officers: "I just saw someone very close and very angry and I wanted that scenario to stop because it was intrusive.

"It was aggressive. I know some people drive close sometimes but this person was very, very close and I didn't know why."

As Daley gesticulated to police in the videotaped interview how he knifed Mr Lock, his widow left court.

Expressing sorrow for his death, Daley added: "I'm not happy that the man has died. I'm not happy that in the final minutes of his life he was in that much pain, and I don't want to be reminded of it.

"I feel very sorry about what I have done and I don't want to see anything like that happen in my lifetime again."

Daley denies murder. The trial continues.

ACCUSED: I FEEL VERY SORRY FOR WHAT I’VE DONE

DON Lock’s widow, Maureen, left the court room as a video showed the killer acting out how he had stabbed her husband.

During an interview Matthew Daley gave to police after his arrest, he stood up and motioned forward to show how he had knifed the retired solicitor.

Played to jurors at Lewes Crown Court yesterday, the interview shows Daley telling police he was sorry for what he had done, and “not happy” that Lock was in such pain.

Wearing a grey tracksuit, Daley, then 34, said: “I don’t know what I was thinking but maybe I was a little bit worried about someone approaching me, and it had been building up in the way that I told you.

“It was just like coming towards me quickly and I had been calm all day with people that I care about and he invaded my space making me worried – and not just him it’s all the people behind him putting on the pressure.

“So I put on the brakes slowly and looked in the mirror and could see that he was still very angry so instead of looking at the mirror [...] I opened the door and put my feet into the road.”

He continued: “So he was very angry with me. And that’s when I thought I had to protect myself and I stood up with my knife and that’s when it went into him.”

Daley accepts killing Lock but denies murder, claiming diminished responsibility due to his mental health problems and saying he felt threatened by Lock and wanted to protect himself.

In the video, Daley was asked by police how he felt about Mr Lock’s death.

“I am not happy the man has died,” he replied.

“I am not happy that in the final moments of his life he was in that much pain and I don’t want really to be reminded of it.

“And I feel very sorry about what I have done and I don’t want to see anything like that happen in my lifetime again.”

On Tuesday witnesses told the court that Mr Lock calmly got out of his car after Daley suddenly did an emergency stop. One said Daley showed no emotion as he stabbed Mr Lock on the side of the A24 near Findon.

Speaking to police, Daley said he had felt extra need to protect his environment because he had earlier been driving his friend and her children in the car.

He said he remembered thinking, “I don’t want to be here; I don’t want to be doing this. I want to be back home and getting back to my life.”

Daley recalled stabbing Lock with a knife he had in his car to cut the tags off his pet goats.

After the attack he got back into his Ford Fusion and drove home, recalling in his interview: “I felt that having put the knife into him, the moment of me being approached by anger had cancelled and so I stood up and drove away.”

He then went to a friend’s house where he told her nothing about what happened before going back home and packing a bag of things for “if I was going to leave town forever”, including 14 Leslie Howard movies.

He added: “I put things in my bag like my favourite movies, a picture of Honey [his horse] and [her] passport and put it all in my bag ready to go because I thought by six in the morning I will want to be gone.”

The next day he told his mother Lynda in a phone call that he had killed someone.

Asked by police why he thought he needed to tell her, he replied: “Because I am responsible for my actions.”