CLARKE MURDER TRIAL: MICHAEL Clarke is not only extremely dangerous but a highly disturbed young man driven by an obsession to kill, a court was told on Tuesday.

Clarke, 21, denies murdering Milroy Clarke, 70, and his wife Joan, 56, at their home in Berryfield Park, Melksham, on December 6, 2004.

Summing up the case for the prosecution, l Nigel Pascoe QC told the jury at Bristol Crown Court the 21-year-old's fascination with knives drove him to kill both his parents.

He said: "Who can doubt that the killer, who stabbed and slashed again and again to produce a total of 33 wounds on two older people who had done no harm to anyone, must have been disturbed, very disturbed?"

Clarke maintains his parents were alive and well when he left the family home shortly after 9am to travel to a concert at Wembley in London.

Mr Pascoe told the jury a telephone call made at 9.48am by an elderly woman Mrs Clarke was due to clean for was never returned because she and her husband had already been stabbed to death by their son.

She did not turn up at her line-dancing club and never returned a mid-afternoon phone call from her best friend.

Telephone records show the Clarkes would normally make several phone calls throughout the day but on December 6, 2004, the day police say they were killed, no one heard from them after their son left the house just after 9am.

The prosecution alleges Clarke, a martial arts expert who owned a large collection of knives, killed his parents before he left for London.

Mr Pascoe said a sighting of Mr Clarke later that evening by friend Sylvia Crabbe had to have been a mistake.

He said graffiti found in Melksham threatening a security guard at the Somerfield supermarket where Mr Clarke worked was a long stretch from the killing of Mrs Clarke.

But Neil Ford QC, defending said yesterday in his summing up: "The prosecution has put forward all sorts of theories and possibilities but none of them stand up to scrutiny.

"The absence of a motive in this case has caused the prosecution very real difficulties, which is why they have been floundering around trying to find some reason why Michael Clarke would kill his parents.

"The prosecution can't say why he would kill his mum and why he would kill her first.

"Mr Pascoe told you when Mr Clarke had been asked if he had any grudge against his mother he replied no sir'. The way Mr Clarke gave you that denial spoke volumes.

"I hope you will agree with me if you're descending to submissions like that you're scraping the bottom of the barrel."

Earlier on Tuesday Stuart Painter, who is accused of disposing of the knife police say killed Mr and Mrs Clarke, told how a carefree trip to London led to his appearance at the murder trial.

Painter is said to have travelled to Wembley where he collected bloody clothing and a blade from Michael Clarke hours after his friend is accused of murdering his parents.

The 22-year-old of Beanacre Road, Melksham, said he would have phoned the police if he believed Clarke's parents, former Swindon police officer Milroy Clarke and his wife Joan, had been killed.

He denies one charge of assisting an offender.

Painter told how he travelled from Canterbury, where he was studying at the University of Kent, to Wembley.

Asked if he thought he would end up in the dock as he made his journey on December 6, 2004, by his defence barrister Michael Hubbard, Painter replied: "I never thought that."

Asked by Mr Hubbard if he had taken a knife and bloody clothing, Painter said: "I would not do that."

Cross examined by Nigel Pascoe, prosecuting, Painter was asked if he had taken steps to protect Clarke.

He replied: "I would not in this court, but then again I really think he didn't do it."

Mr Hubbard continued: "The allegation is that you have assisted Clarke in the knowledge or belief that he had murdered his parents."

Painter replied: "No I didn't."

Mr Hubbard said: "If he had told you at any time that day or on any day that he had murdered his mother and father, what would you have done?"

Painter answered: "I would phone his parents to see if he was joking. If they didn't answer the phone I would call the police straight away."

The case continues.