Gosport man accused of murdering his brother tells court his sibling 'walked onto a knife' in a fit of rage

Mark Oliver, 56, is accused of stabbing his younger sibling, Andrew Oliver, to death during a violent altercation at their home in Harwood Road, Bridgemary, Gosport, on February 1.

But the office worker denied murdering the dad-of-two and instead told jurors he had been the victim of a vicious attack after a ‘childish’ argument over an ‘Egyptian cotton’ pillowcase.

Giving evidence for the first time at his trial at Winchester Crown Court today, Oliver claimed his brother had snatched his pillowcase and was keeping it in his room.

The defendant described how his 53-year-old sibling ignored him when he asked him why the luxury pillowcase was in his room.

The accused told jurors how he ‘showed an Amazon order’ on his mobile phone to Mr Oliver in a bid to prove the cover was his before then taking it and walking out.

It was then he said his ‘heavy-hitting’ boxer of a brother launched a violent attack from behind him, strangling him into unconsciousness.

‘I couldn’t move my head… he was properly choking me,’ he told the jury. ‘His arms were stronger than my leg.

‘My legs just buckled. I sank down... It was a click of the fingers. I was up here then down on the floor.’

Epileptic Oliver said he woke on the floor ‘having soiled his boxers’ to see his brother looming over him, looking angry.

‘It was his face,’ he added. ‘It’s like all the muscles had contracted. If I looked at him quickly I wouldn’t have been able to identify him as my brother.

‘It was his eyes, they were massive, just white all the way.’

He then said his brother started swinging punches at him, landing one on the back of the head with the rest missing him.

In a bid to escape, Oliver told jurors he headbutted the grandfather in the face before ‘scrambling’ to his room.

Here the alleged murderer admitted to picking up one of two knives he had earlier told the court he ‘had been sharpening’ while watching the Wales vs Italy Six Nations rugby match and ‘held it towards’ Mr Oliver’s face.

‘I wanted to scare Andrew off,’ he said. ‘I wanted to snap him out of it and bring him back.’

The 56-year-old told the court how he kept his head down to avoid more punches but raised the hand with the knife in and ‘pushed’ his brother away.

But prosecutor Andrew Houston said this account was an ‘elaborate story’ and questioned Oliver how his brother had received the fatal stab wound to the chest.

‘He has walked onto the knife,’ Oliver told the court. ‘That’s an assumption, my head was down in front of me.’

Mr Houston said this was a lie and instead accused Oliver of ‘arming himself’ with a knife to ‘take his phone back’, which his younger brother had snatched off him and ‘hidden under his pillow’.

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‘You were sick of him taking your things,’ he told the court. ‘Andrew had taken that phone off you when you showed him it to stop you being so pathetic.

‘The struggle with the knife took place in Andrew’s room. I’m going to suggest you had gone back in to get your phone back, armed with a knife.’

Oliver replied: ‘That’s not true.’

Mr Houston said: ‘With five swift blows you cut into his face and stabbed him twice to the body, isn’t it? That’s how he got his injuries in his room, not yours.

‘You were sick of him and lost your temper with him in a row about a pillowcase and deliberately stabbed him.

‘You were just so consumed with rage you lost the plot and you set about setting out an elaborate story about how you had been bitten by Andrew during the struggle. ‘

Defence barrister Sarah Jones QC said Oliver had tried to ‘help’ his brother, calling police and the ambulance after the attack.

Asking him if he had ‘ever intended to stab’ Mr Oliver, the defendant replied: ‘No, I was just trying to push him away.’

Oliver denies murder.

(Proceeding)

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