A MAN accused of battering his 83-year-old father to death was plied with drink by scientists to try and get him in the same state he was in when he allegedly punched, kicked and stamped on the pensioner.

At Manchester Crown Court the jury was told that Jules Lowe had been subjected to "the most detailed scientific tests in British legal history" in a bid to recreate his reactions on the night of the killing.

On five separate occasions 32-year-old Lowe, who has a history of sleepwalking, was taken into laboratory conditions and his sleep pattern monitored by machines and his sleep videoed.

Dr Peter Fenwick, appointed by defence lawyers, carried out the tests when Lowe had had enough drink to put him three times over the drink-drive limit, when he had been deprived of sleep for 36 hours and when he was sober. The court, where Lowe is standing trial for murder, heard that during the tests Lowe became "irritable".

Dr Fenwick admitted that during all the tests Lowe never got up and started sleepwalking, but due to his previous history he could have been sleepwalking on the night he killed Edward Lowe at his home in Windwill Lane, Walkden.

The trial continues.