A son accused of murdering a pensioner in a Southampton street telephoned his dad shortly afterwards saying he had stabbed a man, a court heard.

Keith Humphries told jurors how his son Paul called and told him he had attacked John Willdig but was "unaware of the gravity" of his actions at that time.

Mr Willdig died in Southampton General Hospital after being fatally stabbed following a row outside the home of his ex-girlfriend Caroline Jarvis in Morris Road, Polygon.

Humphries, 36, of Morris Road, denies murdering Mr Willdig, on the grounds that he was mentally ill at the time and did not intend to kill the pensioner or was responsible for his death.

Yesterday Keith Humphries told the court how he received a call from his son from his mother's house in Oakley Road, Shirley.

He had by that point fled the scene and dumped the knife in a bush, jurors were told.

He told the court: "He (Paul Humphries) said I've stabbed John Willdig. He said it was more than once, maybe three times. I tried to get more information from him but he wasn't going to give it to me."

He added: "He wasn't aware of the gravity of what he had done."

Daily Echo:

John Willdig

He urged his son to return to the police to find out more but when Humphries demanded to be sectioned he accompanied him to Antelope House.

Humphries had been diagnosed with schizophrenia while at university in 2003, the court heard.

But Keith Humphries denied his son had appeared "aggressive" around the time of the attack.

But under cross examination by Nigel Lickley QC, Mr Humphries said he was unaware that his son's medication had changed in the months before the attack and that there was a previous occasion when he was reportedly "ranting, shouting and waving his fists" at his mother Anne Goode.

Mr Willdig died at Southampton General Hospital after the attack on June 23 of last year.

He suffered five stab wounds, two to the neck, one severing an artery and three more to the back - one piercing his lung.

Proceeding.