Gosport man murdered his brother after argument over pillowcases, court is told

Mark Oliver, 56, is on trial at Winchester Crown Court accused of killing his 53-year-old brother Andrew Oliver, a grandfather and dad-of-two.

Jurors heard Oliver stabbed his unarmed sibling twice to the body and inflicted three knife wounds on his face.

Prosecutor Andrew Houston told jurors the pair lived with their 86-year-old mother Jean Oliver, who heard ‘arguing and pushing’ at the trio’s home in Harwood Road, Bridgemary, Gosport, on the afternoon of Andrew’s death on February 1.

Both brothers’ laundry had previously been mixed up on occasion, the court heard, and Jean told officers both had a ‘thing about nice bedding’.

Addressing jurors in his opening speech, Mr Houston said: ‘We say this is a case of murder, a case where Mark Oliver, in a row over a petty trivial thing such as pillowcases and laundry, wanted to do his brother at the very least really serious harm, if not kill him.’

Jurors heard their elderly mother told officers: ‘Mark has got his sheets and Andy has got his things, I know it sounds bloody stupid, but Andy has been missing some sheets.

‘He took them and Mark thought they were his and Andy thought they were his.’

Mr Houston added: ‘Andy had said they were his pillowcases, she said the pair of them had a thing about nice bedding.

‘Somehow two of Andy’s pillowcases had got lost, she said that Mark was sick and fed up of it, she said it works both ways and Mark picks up some of his things.’

On the day of Andrew’s death, the brothers had separately been watching the Six Nations rugby tournament opening game with Wales and Italy in their bedrooms.

Mr Houston said: ‘When Andrew Oliver should have been watching that game on his television in his bedroom he in fact lay slowly dying on his landing floor in Gosport.

‘While the game was continuing to show on the television in his bedroom, when he should have been watching Wales administer their customary thumping of Italy, he was actually surrounded by doctors and paramedics who tried in vain to save his life.’

Police were called by the defendant as his unarmed younger brother, who had been living at home after a divorce, lay on the floor bleeding.

Jurors heard the 999 call at 3.11pm as Oliver told the call handler: ‘It was me that inflicted the wound.’

The call handler said: ‘Are the offenders on scene?’ Oliver replied: ‘Yes, me.’

During the call, the accused repeatedly tells his brother: ‘Look at me. Look at me.’

When police arrived Andrew was still alive and he told an officer his name.

His older brother handed over a sheathed knife and told police: ‘I stabbed him.’

Two minutes after police got to the house, paramedics arrived and found Andrew had two stab wounds, one midway down the side of his torso and the fatal injury next to his left nipple. This penetrated his body between 5cm-7cm.

SEE ALSO: Tributes to Gosport grandfather as his brother appears in court charged with his murder

When Oliver was arrested and asked if he had any injuries, he said his brother 'probably strangled me until I went unconscious' and that he was bit or hit on the back of the neck.

He was taken to police custody for attempted murder as paramedics fought to save his younger sibling’s life in ‘desperate and frantic attempts’. Andrew was declared dead at 4.14pm.

In custody the defendant was told he'd been arrested for stabbing his brother twice causing life-threatening injuries.

In front of police he ‘makes a gesture with one hand,’ Mr Houston said, and the defendant then said: ‘It was only once, not twice.’

When the defendant was told of his brother's death he 'slumps to the floor, obviously utterly devastated at the news of his brother's death,' Mr Houston said.

Detectives repeatedly questioned the defendant, who went no comment until a third interview when he gave a prepared statement.

He told police: ‘My brother and I had an argument. My brother strangled me where I lost consciousness.

‘When I came round I fled his bedroom, my brother pursued me into my bedroom where he continued to attack me, because I tried to get away, he bit me.”

The defendant told police: 'All I tried to do was to defend myself.'

Oliver denies murder. He is expected to argue he was acting in self-defence, Mr Houston said.