'Tell them I hear voices in my head'.

Byline: By NICK LAVIGUEUR News Reporter

A WOMAN accused of murdering her senile grandmother begged friends and family to give false evidence about voices in her head, a court heard.

Joanne Hussey, 33, from Yeadon, Leeds, is on trial at Leeds Crown Court for brutally killing her 76-year-old grandmother, Annie Garbutt, with a spade at her home at The Clough, Battyeford, Mirfield.

She admits the offence but is claiming voices in her head told her to "get rid of grandma".

Yesterday, the defendant's brother, Richard Hussey, told the court he had received a phone call from his sister while she was on remand in New Hall Prison.

He said: "She asked me to lie for her, she asked me to lie in court ... to verify that she was hearing voices."

Prosecutor, James Goss QC, asked Mr Hussey: "And did anything like that happen?"

"I didn't see anything to verify that she was hearing voices," Mr Hussey replied.

Visibly upset, Mr Hussey, admitted he had his own psychological problems, and had told his occupational therapist about his sister's demands.

Neil Davey QC, defending, put it to Mr Hussey that his memory was poor.

"She didn't actually say, 'Richard, will you lie for me'," he said.

"What she said was, 'do you remember that time I was talking to myself, will you tell the police about it?'"

"Yes, I remember that," Mr Hussey responded.

Mr Goss asked: "... and can you remember any such time?"

Mr Hussey said he could not.

But family friend, Pat Easton from Leeds, told the jury she had also been asked to tell the court that Hussey was hearing voices.

Mrs Easton, a close friend of Hussey and her mother, Maureen Hussey, for more than ten years, said Maureen had telephoned to tell her that Mrs Garbutt was dead.

She said: "She asked me to lie that she (Hussey) heard voices."

Mrs Easton went on to tell the court that she had been asked again when she went with Maureen to visit Hussey at New Hall Women's Prison, Flockton.

"She asked us both to lie for her," she said, "but I wasn't going to lie and Maureen wasn't going to do it.

"Maureen did say she was that desperate she would pay someone to lie," she added.

Mrs Easton said she was only told that and was never directly offered any money.

A tape recording of a conversation between Hussey and her mother on August 14, 2007 from New Hall Prison, played to the court, again referred to the demands on Mrs Easton.

During the half-hour long conversation Hussey told her mother of her horror of being in the adjacent cell to Huddersfield murderer Sharon Wright, convicted of torturing and killing her 4-year-old daughter Leticia last August.

She and her boyfriend, Peter McKenzie- Seaton, were both given life terms for the crime.

Earlier, the court had heard from Hussey's consultant psychiatrist, Dr Thomas Hughes, who said he had written to Royal Mail, Hussey's employer, on April 27, 2007, giving her the all clear to return to work, only days before the alleged murder of May 7 that year.

Dr Hughes confirmed Hussey had been diagnosed with type two bipolar disorder, a mild form of manic depression, but said he had decided to take her off her Lithium and had advised her GP to phase down the levels of her two other anti-mania prescriptions.

And Mr Brian Johnson, a forensic chemist specialising in body fluid analysis, told the court he found no evidence of any recreational or medicinal drugs in a blood sample taken from Hussey on the day she was arrested, meaning she had not taken any of her anti-psychotic medicine for several days.

Joanne Hussey is on trial for murder but denies the charge claiming diminished responsibility.

The trial continues

CAPTION(S):

VICTIM: Grandmother Annie Garbutt, killed with a spade by her grand-daughter Joanne Hussey. Hussey is claiming diminished responsibility for the killing, saying she heard voices in her head telling her to do it