A 26-year-old from Petersfield “brutally and savagely” murdered his mother with a pruning knife before calling 999 and admitting to killing her, a court heard on Monday

Anarlyn Jones is on trial at Portsmouth Crown Court this week after his 44-year-old mother, Anna Jones, was found dead in a flat on Station Road in Petersfield on May 9 last year.

The defendant has admitted to killing his mother but denies murder after pleading guilty last December to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

At the start of the proceedings, it was stated that the defendant was previously known as Bronwyn Jones but was now using the name Anarlyn and the he/him pronouns.

Prosecuting, Sarah Jones KC described how the defendant had “brutally and savagely… slashed open his mother’s throat and inflicted multiple wounds upon her”.

The injuries were made by a small, red-handled pruning knife with a sharp-edged curve that the defendant had purchased a few days earlier.

The prosecution added that the defendant had possibly experienced overwhelming “rage, resentment, distress and alcohol” when he attacked his mother.

When calling the emergency services, Jones kept saying “I killed my mum, I killed my mum, I killed my mum, I killed her”. He later repeated similar words after police arrived on scene.

The defendant said that demons told him to kill his mother and that his mother had begged him to kill her.

The prosecutor said the victim put up a “vigorous struggle” for life as the post-mortem examination found multiple defence wounds on her hands and arm.

Despite the defendant’s troubled childhood and mental health issues, the prosecutor said they are “not the cause or a significant contributing factor to his decision to kill.”

The trial continues.