Mark Burton frightened mother a year before murder

Queenstown teacher Paddy Burton was frightened by the behaviour of her mentally ill son, Mark, for a year before he killed her, an inquest was told yesterday.

Queenstown coroner Alan Macalister, sitting in Invercargill, is conducting the hearing into Mrs Burton's death.

Mrs Burton's 19-year-old son stabbed her to death on March 31, but at a High Court trial in Invercargill in August he was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.

The day before the murder Burton was formally released from the Southland Hospital mental health unit after spending the previous week living in a flat on a trial basis.

Mr Macalister said that although the High Court had heard some of the facts about Mrs Burton's death, the circumstances leading to it had not been fully established as the Coroners Act required.

Seventeen witnesses will be called. The hearing is expected to take two weeks.

Social worker Nadine Lilley, who cared for Burton while he lived in Queenstown, said she had been involved with him for about a year.

Ms Lilley said Mrs Burton phoned the mental health team about March last year to say she was frightened by her son's behaviour. Burton told Ms Lilley he was not taking his medication regularly.

Late in August Mrs Burton told Ms Lilley that her son's mental health had deteriorated in the past week. Ms Lilley noticed this coincided with his drinking.

In mid-September he asked his mother about ropes and whether rat poison would kill. He admitted trying to wind her up.

One day last February, Burton was spooking his mother, smoking cannabis and not getting out of bed. A day later he said he had just been drinking alcohol.

Ms Lilley told Burton's lawyer, Bill Dawkins, that she found Mrs Burton and her husband, police Sergeant Trevor Burton, intelligent people who were concerned about their son and made useful suggestions about his care.

Registered nurse Tina Barlow said that during Burton's stay in the mental health unit in February he left the ward and returned drunk and told her he was a gangster who enjoyed taking drugs.

- NZPA