Father 'had feeling of peace' over killing plan

A father who stabbed his son to death and tried to murder his baby daughter after his wife left him for his best friend was given a "feeling of peace" when he devised the plan to kill his children, a court heard.

Leslie Pepall, 28, is accused of murdering his four-year-old son Ben at the family home in Gosport in Hampshire by stabbing him through the chest and then hitting him about the head with a lamp stand.

After the attack on August 6 last year he then turned on his infant daughter Chloe, also stabbing her.

Although she survived he is then said to have attempted to kill himself by plunging the knife into his own neck.

Dr Christopher Jarman, a consultant psychiatrist, told Winchester Crown Court Pepall's plan to kill his children had allowed him to cope with the emotional turmoil he was suffering after his wife Jean had left him for his best friend Gavin Stevens.

"It seemed logical, reasonable and a good idea," Dr Jarman said. "Later on he thought it horrible but at the time it was a solution to the problem.

It had a calming effect on him.

"You may find that hard to understand, but the point I am making is that he was mentally abnormal at the time and that is what makes it understandable."

It is alleged Pepall devised the plan while being treated for suicidal feelings at the Meadows, a mental hospital in Hampshire.

Within hours of being released, Pepall returned home to attack his two children.

Mr Jarman said the hospital's doctors should never have allowed him to leave.

He said Pepall had idolised his family, particularly his son Ben, which had helped him get over the death of his mother earlier in the year.

Pepall denies murder but admits manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

He has also pleaded guilty to attempting to murder Chloe.