‘I blanked out,’ man who stabbed victim 18 times tells court

A MAN who stabbed his girlfriend’s son 18 times has told a court he has no memory of what happened.

Robert Jones, 46, who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, blames voices in his head telling him to carry out the “frenzied” attack on Andrew Burvill who was sleeping at the time.

Mr Burvill, 35, survived but was scarred for life and needed skin grafts for the wounds to his head, neck, chest and leg.

Jones, who denies attempted murder, told the jury he was sorry for attacking Mr Burvill, who he thought of as his own son.

But six months after the March attack he said he was still convinced his girlfriend’s family was “spiking’ his food and drink.

Jones told Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court: “I have no memory of stabbing Andrew, but I get flashbacks of it.

“I blanked out, the next thing I remember is driving away in Andrew’s van.”

The court heard Jones was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia after years of taking cocaine, cannabis, heroin and “the drug of his choice” – amphetamine.

He spent several years at the Caswell Clinic in Bridgend but was released back into the community where he started a relationship with Mr Burvill’s mother Gaynor.

Jones spent five nights a week at her home in Penydarren, Merthyr Tydfil, and formed a good relationship with her son.

The court heard Jones stopped taking the anti-psychotic drugs he was being prescribed because they were “sedating” him.

He started having an injection once a fortnight at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital but said it didn’t work.

Jones told the court: “I felt psychotic and angry. I could not control my thoughts, I was delusional.

“I was off my face, I thought drugs were being put in my food and coffee.

“I’ve had voices since I was a teenager – they were saying to kill him.

“As I was doing it I realised what I was doing was wrong but I just could not stop myself.”

Prosecutor Patrick Harrington asked Jones: “How can you remember that if you can’t remember anything else?” Jones replied: “I can’t remember.” Jones, of Merthyr Tydfil, denies attempted murder but has admitted causing grievous bodily harm.

The trial continues.