Victim subjected to 'sustained and vicious assault', court told

A murder trial jury has heard how the victim was stabbed and hacked from head to toe in a "sustained and vicious assault" during which his killer attempted to decapitate him.

Deputy State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy told the trial that the deceased, Derek Benson, was stabbed 25 times and that some of these wounds went through the body from front to back. In addition, he sustained 60 cutting or incised wounds extending "from his head to his toes".