A MAN who claims to have been sleepwalking when he allegedly murdered his father is using a "desperate" defence for his crime, a court was told.

Jules Lowe, aged 32, punched, stamped and kicked his 83-year-old father Edward after a heavy drinking session, Manchester Crown Court heard.

The father died during the "savage beating" but his son, who does not deny the attack, claims it was done while he was in a state of "automatism" - completely unaware of his actions while sleepwalking. Lowe told police his only memory of events was drinking into the night with his father at their home.

The victim's body had 90 separate injuries and was left in the drive of their house in Windmill Lane, Walkden. A neighbour called police.

Lowe denies murder on October 30, 2003.

Prosecutor Richard Marks QC told the court: "Automatism is a defence which rarely arises in our courts.

"It has been described in one case in the Court of Appeal as a quagmire of law, seldom entered nowadays save for those in desperate need of a defence."

Friends and family of Lowe have told the court of past episodes of his sleepwalking, but he has never before been violent or aggressive at the same time, the court heard. Lowe, who runs a motorcycle shop, was given a series of scientific tests to examine his sleep patterns while sober and drunk.

Experts say there is a "theoretical possibility" the killing could have taken place while sleepwalking and the fact Lowe might have taken a shower after it, still while sleep walking. But there was no recorded case of a person taking a shower and still not waking up, the court heard.

Mr Marks said there had been an "inefficient" attempt at concealing the crime, after Lowe's bloodstained boxer shorts and socks were found next to the bath in the house. The attempts to conceal suggested Lowe was aware of what he had done and was not sleepwalking, Mr Marks said.

And he questioned whether it was "realistically conceivable" given the extreme violence used to batter the victim to death, the noise, broken furniture, and the fact Lowe himself suffered injuries to his head during the incident, that he remained in a state of "automatism" throughout the attack.

Mr Marks, in his closing speech to the jury said father and son had a "superficially harmonious" relationship, but said a possible motive for the murder was his father's past violence towards his son and their mother.

Proceeding