THE mother of knife death victim Sarah Melia told a court of the moment she identified her son as the main suspect.

Marion Kitchen was shown a picture taken from CCTV footage of a man police were hunting, in a bid to prepare her for media coverage of their hunt.

But she recognised him instantly as her son, Mark Kitchen.

Yesterday she broke down in tears at Manchester Crown Court when she was asked how she knew it was her him and said: “I’m his mum.”

Kitchen, aged 37, Richard Gwyn Close, Westhoughton, denies murdering his sister, 34-year-old Ms Melia, at her home in Catherine Street West, Horwich.

The court heard that after identifying Kitchen on January 19, five days after the killing, Mrs Kitchen watched CCTV footage on The Bolton News’ website, which reinforced her view the man was her son because of his walk.

Ms Melia, a mother-of-two, was found dead on January 14 by her 15-year old daughter. A post-mortem examination revealed that she had been stabbed 10 times.

On the day of the incident, the court heard that Ms Melia spoke to her mum on two occasions. Mrs Kitchen said on the first occasion, Ms Melia rang her to tell her that her son was ill.

They spoke for last time at around 10am. Mrs Kitchen rang her again about an hour later but Ms Melia did not pick up the telephone. The prosecution said this is because she was killed between 10.20 and 10.30am.

The court had previously heard Kitchen suffered from schizophrenia and was taking prescription drugs. But on occasion he mixed them with illegal substances, which made him delusional and violent.

Yesterday the jury was told Kitchen had become estranged from his mother and Ms Melia and had not seen them since October, 2006 because they had tried to stop him taking drugs.

The court heard of a number of incidents which involved violence on Kitchen’s part including one when he stabbed a cushion in fury after becoming agitated at a family wedding.

The trial continues.