Warning: Report contains graphic details that will upset some listeners. A West Auckland man who attacked his unwell mother says he wasn't thinking when he picked up the hammer he used to kill her.
Martin Marinovich, 28, gave evidence in his own defence during his murder trial at the High Court in Auckland on Thursday.
He strangled his mother Noeleen before repeatedly striking her head with a hammer in their Oratia home last February.
Mr Marinovich accepts he killed the 59-year-old woman, but says he didn't intend to end her life when he attacked her.
RNZ court reporter Anneke Smith filed this story.
