‘ Giggling’ killer admitted stabbing
A STABLEHAND giggled as he told how he stabbed a pensioner 39 times because the victim had been tailgating him, a court heard yesterday.
The jury in the trial of Matthew Daley was shown police video footage of interviews in which he tried to explain his actions.
A smiling Daley, 35, who denies murder, said he beckoned Donald Lock, 79, to come closer after they had stopped their cars following a minor collision. He then plunged a knife into his body in what the court heard was a “ferocious” attack.
He graphically demonstrated to officers how he stabbed Mr Lock again and again.
Daley said: “The knife went into his body and he fell to the floor.
Wept
“It went into his throat, neck and head. I didn’t even look at the body, I just got back in the car.” He blamed the attack on Mr Lock, saying: “What sort of person tailgates someone?”
As the footage was shown, Mr Lock’s widow Maureen rushed from the courtroom in tears.
Daley’s mother Lynda, father John, and sister Rebecca also wept as they watched from the public gallery at Lewes Crown Court in East Sussex.
Dressed in grey jogging gear, Daley, who has a long history of mental illness, gave rambling answers to detectives, occasionally giggling nervously. Daley said up until the killing it had been the happiest day of his life. He denied he had been upset at falling out with his girlfriend or because his car had failed its MoT.
He claimed the stabbing occurred because Mr Lock, a great- grandfather, looked angry and aggressive when Daley looked in his rearview mirror on the A24 in July last year. He slammed on his brakes, causing Mr Lock’s Toyota to hit the back of his Ford Fusion.
Describing what happened next, he said he beckoned Mr Lock to come closer before pulling a knife from his back pocket and attacking him.
After the stabbing Daley texted his estranged girlfriend Lea Luff, who had ended a five- year on- off relationship a week earlier.
Daley told officers he put his bloodsoaked clothes in a rubbish bag that he dumped in a neighbour’s bin.
When police searched his flat in Worthing, West Sussex, they also found blood on a door handle.
After the attack Daley said he was “really anxious” and “didn’t know what to do” so he walked aimlessly around Worthing. He said: “I looked for what I would need if I was going to leave town forever – a framed picture of my horse Honey and her passport, and 14 Leslie Howard movies to keep me entertained at night.”
The fact that Daley killed Mr Lock is not disputed but the prosecution and defence disagree over his degree of culpability. The trial continues.