Killer Hull teen will blame ‘Norman Bates’ stab death on drugs

Allan Dale, 80, told a jury at Hull Crown Court that 17-year-old Lewis Dale attacked him, like the character from the Alfred Hitchcock movie Psycho, as the couple lay in bed at their home in Summergangs Road, in Hull, in April.

The court heard that the teenager would say he was suffering a psychotic episode at the time due to his use of the drug M-Cat.

Hull Crown Court heard there was no dispute that Dale, 17, killed Irene Dale, 78, and seriously injured Mr Dale, who barricaded the room after his grandson left.

Giving evidence from behind a screen, Mr Dale said: “It was just like that Norman Bates with the knife. It was all over in seconds.”

The pensioner then demonstrated to the judge and jury how his grandson, who was wearing a bathrobe with the hood pulled up, stabbed him in the chest and then again in the abdomen.

He said: “It was a kitchen knife, shaped like a wedge – the strongest knife in the block.”

Mr Dale said his wife woke up and was scared. He said she said to her grandson: “What are you doing, Lewis?”

Mr Dale said: “I got up. How I managed to get up I don’t know. I must have gone for him. That’s when he stabbed me in the side.”

He told the jury his grandson left without saying a word and threw the knife at him. It missed and stuck in the bedroom floor.

Mr Dale described how his wife pulled the duvet over her head as the defendant attacked her and was left with her head resting on a bedside table.

It was only a few minutes before his grandson left the house and got into a taxi ordered by his drug dealer, taking a TV from the house with him.

Mr Dale said: “He sort of waved at me as if he was going on holiday.”

Mr Dale described his relationship as his grandson was “very good” and said “both thought the world of him”.

The teenager had only moved in to their house 10 days before the tragedy, because of “some trouble with the police” at his father’s home.

Earlier prosecutor Adrian Strong said Dale was a user of the drug mephedrone, also known as “meow meow or M-Cat”.

He said: “I anticipate that Lewis Dale will tell you that at the time of the attack on his grandparents he was suffering a psychotic episode as a result of his drug use.”

Originally a so-called “legal high”, it was outlawed in 2010 and is now a class B controlled drug.

Mr Strong said users claim it provokes euphoria and heightened energy. But there were also reports that it caused restlessness, anxiety, confusion and psychosis.

The prosecutor said there was telephone evidence of contact between Dale and his dealer after the attack and he said the defendant took the TV from the house to exchange for M-Cat. He also took the drug between the attack and his arrest, about an hour and 40 minutes later.

A blood test found mephedrone and cocaine in his body.

Mr Strong said: “This wasn’t psychosis. It was drug related. It was all bound up with Lewis Dale’s wish and desire to obtain more drugs for himself - selfishness.”

Dale denies murder and attempted murder.