'Layabout' son, 35, stabbed middle-class parents to death after they found him in bed at lunchtime, jury told

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 5:34 PM on 12th October 2010

A layabout knifed his mother and father, a retired headmaster, to death in a frenzied attack in their living room after a row about him being hungover, a court heard yesterday.

Daniel Dighton was a 'fantasist' and 'pathological liar' with a double life who made up to friends that his mother had died, even inventing a funeral and a wake, and put on fake tan to pretend that he had been abroad, the jury were told.

While in prison after his arrest, the 35-year-old offered a fellow inmate who was a major fraudster £10,000 for advice about how to feign mental illness so he could get off the murder charge, the Old Bailey heard.

Dighton, an only child, was 'much loved' by Barry and Elizabeth Dighton, both retired popular teachers at the same private boys' prep school, but was a 'source of anxiety' because he had no drive and spent his days 'loafing around the house and his nights drinking'.

They had to lock away any cash they had in the house to stop him taking it, the court heard, and after the murders police found a note saying, 'Please don't take any more of our drinks, Danny.'

The day before the murder while out for lunch with his parents and grandmother Olive, Mr Dighton noticed that £80 was missing from his wallet and they all looked at Daniel but didn't say anything.

A regular at his local pub The Folly in Croydon, Dighton never told his friends there that he still lived with his parents and was renowned amongst fellow drinkers as a personality and comic storyteller.

The evening before the murder, Dighton went out drinking and on to a strip club until late.

The following day, September 30, 2009, Dighton and his parents were due to travel to their home in Normandy, France. The couple returned from shopping at midday.

Crispin Aylett QC, prosecuting, said: 'They came back at about lunchtime to find their layabout of a son still in bed with a hangover.

'A quarrel broke out, probably the sort of argument that perhaps you might expect to have with a teenager, less with a 35-year-old man.'

Mr Aylett said the routine argument turned violent.

'Arming himself with two knives the defendant stabbed both of his parents to death in an attack of brutal ferocity.

'He stabbed his father four times. His mother got by far the worst of it, She was stabbed over 20 times.'

A neighbour heard her screams of 'Barry, Barry. No, no,' and then 'growling noise' from a male voice and called police who arrived within minutes.

They found Mr Dighton, 61, slumped in the armchair and Mrs Dighton, 60, lying on the floor, both dead.

Dighton was found in the loft, having just finished a cigarette.

As he was arrested, he said: 'It's just an argument that got out of hand. I don't normally lose my rag like that. I wish I could turn back time.'

Dighton lived with his parents all his life, save for a brief failed stint in a flat which his parents had bought for him in a bid to help him strike out by himself.

He first got a job as an assistant caretaker at Elmhurst School for Boys in Croydon, South London where his father was headmaster until his retirement in 2006 and was then promoted to teaching assistant.

But he resigned last July after getting a job to teach at a school in Thailand.

The job fell through but unable to face the humiliation of telling his friends at The Folly, Dighton pretended that he had gone to Thailand anyway and sending them text messages from abroad.

To their surprise, he returned four weeks later, announcing that he was back in the country because his mother had died and told them where the funeral and wake would be held.

His friends organised a 'whip round' for a wreath and one of them ended up driving round every church in the area unable to find the funeral.

A group of them then went to the venue for the wake to find there was no booking.

To their puzzlement, Dighton arrived at the pub later that day wearing a dark suit, telling them that the funeral had gone as well as expected.

The next day he pretended to jet back to Thailand, sending a text to a friend that it was '80 degrees and he was off to see his girlfriend' who didn't exist.

A fortnight later at the end of August, Dighton returned to the pub again and told his friends that the job hadn't worked out.

His mother, who knew he was using fake tan because of the dirty bedsheets, kept his secret for him.

Dighton denies murder but admits murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The trial continues.

From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1319848/Son-35-stabbed-parents-death-bed-hangover.html