A SON who attacked his parents and elderly grandmother in a "frenzied attack" told his mother "this isn’t me, it’s the devil" as he tried to stab her with a pair of scissors, a court heard.

Jonathan Keal used a cricket bat, dumbbells and knives against his family during a horrifying attack.

The 36-year-old is accused of attempting to murder his father Robert, 64, as he slept in a chair, stabbing him while shouting "I’m sorry dad, I’m sorry", and of breaking into his 65-year-old mother Lynda’s locked bedroom to stab her.

He is also accused of attacking his 90-year-old grandmother Marjorie Blacker as she lay in her bed.

Keal denies the charge, claiming that he was insane at the time.

Salisbury Crown Court, Wilts heard that Keal had tried to kill himself just the day before the attack.

The incident happened in September 2018, when police were called to the detached family home on Mayfield Road, Sandleheath.

Kerry Maylin, prosecuting, told the court how Keal had been living independently in Bristol but moved back in with his parents about six weeks before the attack due to concerns about his mental health and drug addiction.

On September 25, Keal made the decision to stop taking his prescribed medication, self-harmed by cutting his wrists and ankles and tried to hang himself.

Ms Maylin explained how Keal attacked his father with a knife while he was sleeping in a chair downstairs during the first night he had been released from hospital.

She said: “He was awoken by his son stabbing him and hitting him about his head and upper torso.

“In the course of that attack he heard his son shout ‘I’m sorry dad, I’m sorry.

“Robert Keal thought he was just being thumped but soon realised he wasn’t just being hit, he was being stabbed because the blood began to flow.”

The court heard how Keal fled from the lounge area and went upstairs, where he attacked his grandmother in her bed while she slept.

Ms Maylin explained that bloodstains showed that she had made her way from the bed at some point to the point where she was found by the police by the door of her room.

The court heard that it was impossible to tell who was attacked first, but that Keal broke into his mother’s locked bedroom while she slept.

Ms Maylin said: “She woke up to her son Jonathan hitting her, he was shouting ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, this isn’t me, it’s the devil’.

“She remembers she was bleeding in the bedroom but couldn’t remember whether she was injured with scissors or a knife.”

When Jonathan left, the court heard that his mother went to her en-suite dressing room and bathroom area and locked the door, opened a window to make it appear as if she had climbed out, then hid in a wardrobe.

But her son returned with a pair of scissors in his hands and ‘smashed his way through the locked door, completely removing it from its hinges’.

Ms Maylin said: “He was hammering her with the scissors to her chest and neck but the blade wouldn’t go in. When he punctured her neck with the scissors and pulled it out, that’s when he stopped.”

He left and Lynda called 999, Robert was also on the phone downstairs but was interrupted by his son attacking him once again, this time with a cricket bat.

Lynda told the police ‘we are all in danger’ and ‘he stabbed me in the neck with scissors, he’s gone mad’.

Ms Maylin explained how Robert told his son: “You’re killing me, you’re going to kill me, Jonathan...”

But the court heard that Jonathan just replied: “I know I am. I’m sorry. I’m sorry dad, I’m sorry.”

All three of his victims suffered stab wounds but survived the attacks.

Judge Mr Justice Garnham told the jury: “Mr Keal has been examined by four psychiatrists, two for the defence and two for the prosecution.

“The four psychiatrists agree that at the time of the incident, Mr Keal was suffering from a disease of the mind that led to a defect of reasoning. They also agree that he knew the nature of his actions.

“The crucial thing is whether he knew what he was doing was wrong. The prosecution experts say he didn’t know what he was doing was wrong. The defence experts say he was not able to form a rational understanding of right and wrong.”

Keal, formerly of Old Market Street, Bristol, but now of no fixed address, denied three charges of attempted murder and three charges of wounding with intent between 25-28 September 2018.

The trial continues.