A PROJECT manager working on the first NHS Nightingale hospital who battered his mother with fire irons believed he was in an army computer game, he told a court.

James Wells, 43, accepted attacking mum Linda Holford and stepfather Adrian at their bungalow near Marlborough at the beginning of the first lockdown last March.

But he denied attempting to murder the couple at their Shalbourne home and spitting at a police officer a day later, pleading not guilty by reason of insanity.

Today, jurors at Bristol Crown Court accepted Wells’ defence, taking five hours and nine minutes to deliver majority verdicts of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Mrs Justice Stacey, the judge who heard the six-day trial, remanded Wells to the care of Ravenswood House secure mental health unit for further psychiatric reports. She will decide on March 2 on the disposal of the case, including whether Wells should receive a hospital order.

Thanking the jury for the attention they had paid over the preceding week, she repeatedly described the case as a harrowing one and said that she suspected further study would need to be done into the emotional impact of the coronavirus pandemic on those unable to touch loved ones.

The judge said: “This trial and this exercise has been about you deciding and reaching your verdicts and concluding that Mr Wells is not guilty by reason of insanity for these three terrible acts. Now the opportunity will come for Mr Wells and his family to rehabilitate and recover from this awful, awful episode.”

During the trial, jurors heard that Wells, a project manager who had previously worked on the Olympics, had been working on setting up the first NHS Nightingale Hospital at the Excel Centre in London in March. Wells’ area of expertise was setting up catering facilities.

The weekend before the alleged murder attempt, Wells had spoken to his friend and boss, Eddie Fairish, about feeling stressed. The men had gone back to their homes after staying in staff accommodation near the site.

Jurors were told that on the morning of the assault, March 30, he spoke to occupational health nurse Catrina Hughes, who realised he was becoming more and more distressed. She overheard him telling his mother, who he had called on the phone, that he had not slept for four days.

Wells told the nurse that he had had a short-lived affair with a co-worker earlier that year. He said he thought he was having a breakdown.

Ms Hughes spoke to Wells’ mother, Linda Holford, 70, and arrangements were made for him to stay at her home in Shalbourne, near Marlborough.

Mr Fairish helped Wells collect his things from his rooms near the site. His usually meticulous friend’s room “looked like it had been burgled”, he said. On the drive down from London, Mr Fairish said Wells had appeared confused about recent events.

Wells was said to have been dropped off at his mum’s bungalow without a handover. He had a bath and went to bed for around 15 minutes before returning in a “hyper” mood. Mrs Holford took her son out for a walk for around 45 minutes, and the three watched television and ate dinner together.

Mr Tully said Wells had gone to bed but again re-emerged from his room carrying a case. His mum and step-dad, 75-year-old Adrian Holford, asked him where he was going. Mr Holford went on to describe Wells' reaction as 'going absolutely berserk', as he launch a frenzied attack that left them both seriously injured and the room covered in blood.

Jurors heard that Mr and Mrs Holford had never previously had problems with their son. Mr Tully said: “Prior to all of this if you had stopped the clock as on March 30 and you’d asked stepdad what did he think of his stepson he was to tell the police that he would have characterised their relationship with James – his and his wife’s relationship – as wonderful. They’d never had a cross word.

“But overall he says that what he witnessed that day was his stepson going ‘berserk’ – one word he used – ‘ballistic’, another, he was to say that he was simply on a different planet.”

Wells pleaded not guilty to all charges by reason of insanity. The defence was a complex one – and one that the defence had to prove on the balance of probabilities.

In coming to a verdict, the jury had to consider a number of questions, called the M’Naghten rules. First, was Wells labouring under a “disease of the mind” such that he did not know the “nature and quality” of what he was doing? Second, if he was aware of what he was doing, did he know it was wrong?

It was agreed by the experts and the lawyers that Wells had been suffering a mental illness, diagnosed by a prison doctor as bipolar, but that he was aware of what he was doing to his mother and stepdad.

However, the three medical experts told the jury they did not believe Wells was aware what he was doing was wrong.