Minffordd murder accused admits fury during attack on dad

A man who is accused of murdering his father has told a jury about the moment he dragged him from his car and attacked him.

Tony Thomas, 45, told Mold Crown Court he was "overwhelmed with anger, like a fuse was blowing" in his head.

He said he put his father, Dafydd Thomas, 65, on the ground then kicked him in the side and the head, and stamped on him on 25 March 2021.

The defendant, of Minffordd, Gwynedd, denies murder and manslaughter.

His father died yards from his home, also in Minffordd, with "catastrophic injuries" to his face.

Mr Thomas told the court that at 12:30 GMT on the day of the attack he found an email in his spam folder from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board giving notice about pig movement.

He said he concluded his father had bought a pig or pigs, and walked the mile to his farmhouse.

"I wanted to find out if he was responsible for the pig movement, I was angered," Mr Thomas told the court. 

The jury heard he searched for him in an outbuilding then saw his 4x4 vehicle approaching the house.

He went down to meet him and they spoke through the open window. 

"I asked if he was responsible for the pig movement and he said 'yes'," the defendant told the court.

He told the jury he was concerned about his father bringing in diseased pigs after he had spent years trying to eradicate disease from his own, adding his father "didn't care".

He said: "I opened the pick-up door, put him down to the ground and kicked him in the torso and head and stamped on him once."

The court heard Tony Thomas had previously been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Yasir Kasmi told the court he also had schizoaffective disorder, which has similar symptoms to schizophrenia.

The court also heard he had not been taking his psychiatric medication for 18 months.

Gordon Aspden KC, defending, asked Mr Thomas what the intention of his attack was.

Mr Thomas said he did not have one.

"It was a reflex reaction," he told the jury.

Mr Thomas said it was over in 10-15 seconds. He had left his father on the ground, he said, and walked home.

On the way he said he washed his blood-stained wellingtons in an animal trough. 

Mr Aspden asked his client: "When you left your father, was he still alive?"

The defendant said he was and that he was not responsible for killing him.

Gordon Cole KC, prosecuting, asked Tony Thomas if he had been "in a rage" at the time of the attack, to which he replied: "That's true."

He told the jury his dad was alive after the attack, but admitted he did not check his pulse or call an ambulance.

Mr Thomas said when the ambulance arrived his father was three or four metres (10-13ft) from where he had left him and claimed his stepmother had killed him.

Mr Cole asked Mr Thomas why he had washed his boots in the animal trough. 

He said: "I was just cleaning up. It wasn't CSI [crime scene investigation] or anything like that."

Mr Thomas said he put his clothes in the washing machine because they were dirty farm clothes and he had finished working for the day. 

Dr Kasmi told the court in the run up to 25 March, Tony Thomas' mental state was deteriorating, and he had feelings of "persecution and grandiosity".

The court heard he had told Dr Kasmi he had a poor relationship with his father who he claimed had been "horrible" to him for 44 years.

He believed him to be a "narcissist" who, he said, abused him psychologically.

Dr Kasmi said Tony Thomas had told him he would have pleaded guilty until he saw his step mother's statement,which led him to believe she had killed his father.

In another meeting, Dr Kasmi said Mr Thomas told him other members of the family had killed his father.

The court heard Tony Thomas also believed his father wanted to be killed so he would go to prison.

He was arrested outside his home by armed police at about 15:30 on the day of his father's death.

The trial continues.