A husband who stabbed his wife to death believed his personality had changed after he was attacked twice in the weeks before she was killed, a jury heard.

Dewi Hughes, 38, made repeated visits to his GP complaining of a catalogue of symptoms after being beaten up, including loss of memory, temporary unconsciousness and blurred vision.

He was referred to a neurologist for a brain scan, which revealed there had been an injury.

A month after the attacks, Hughes, an alcoholic, killed his wife Anne, 55, at their home in Twyford Road, Brighton.

Hughes has denied murder but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The jury at Lewes Crown Court has heard how doctors have diagnosed Hughes as suffering from a severe psychopathic personality disorder.

He has had mental health problems dating back to his childhood in Wales and has been jailed in the past for violent crimes including assault and wounding.

Professor Nigel Eastman, a forensic psychiatrist who examined Hughes, said his behaviour deteriorated in the weeks leading up to his wife's death in May last year.

He said: "There is evidence he was not in the same state as normal, which was why his GP sent him for the first time to a neurologist."

Hughes said he was attacked on April 12 last year. He approached two men outside the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton late at night to ask where he could buy alcohol.

They took him somewhere secluded and robbed him. He said he was beaten over the head with either a baseball bat or a snooker cue.

On April 27 he was with a group of street drinkers on Brighton seafront when a fight broke out. When he tried to break up the fight he was kicked and slapped around the head.

The court has heard how Anne Hughes bled to death on May 23 after being stabbed with a kitchen knife.

Afterwards Hughes tried to stitch up the fatal wound with a needle and thread.

The trial continues.