Eileen Barrott: Killer father controlled home life daughter tells court

Eileen Barrott, 50, had recently told her husband she was leaving him, the court heard

A woman whose father is accused of killing her mother said their home life was "very much like being in prison", a court heard.

Mark Barrott struck his wife Eileen twice with a hammer before strangling her at their Leeds home last August.

He has admitted manslaughter but denies murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to mental illness.

The couple's daughter, Carita Barrott, said they endured years of controlling behaviour at the hands of her father.

Jurors at Leeds Crown Court were told that when she was a child, her mother wasn't allowed to cook any meals at home and what and when they ate was "under his control".

"She would get into a lot of trouble if she made something he did not like, like toast or something. It was just very, very controlled," she said.

Miss Barrott, whose evidence was read by prosecutor Holly Clegg, said her parents had a "volatile relationship" and that she and her brother grew up "around a lot of arguments".

'Spy on her'

She said: "I remember he would call her names and, growing-up, hearing it, I became so conditioned to it I would think it was normal."

When her mother, a nurse at St James's Hospital in Leeds, went on a night out she said her father would follow her to "find her, spy on her and see if she was talking to anyone".

Miss Barrott told the court her father's "aggressive OCD" made his controlling behaviour unbearable for her mother and she had got to the point "where she couldn't cope with it for much longer".

She said her father was "like a dark cloud" and "talked about suicide on a monthly basis". She said he was also obsessed with paranormal activity and spirituality.

She said her mother had been planning to leave her father, and had told him the marriage was over but that they had reconciled about 10 days before her death.

However, she said her mother later changed her mind and was "adamant this time she was going to leave" and made plans to go and visit a relative in Cambridge.

On the day of her mother's death on 15 August, she received a call from her brother saying he had had a text from his father's friends stating "he had done something to my mum, that he had hit her over the head with a hammer and that she might still be alive".

Her brother went round to the house and shortly after Miss Barrott received a text message from him, saying: "He has killed her

The court previously heard how after killing his wife, Mr Barrott, 54, fled to Scotland to seek refuge in a monastery before he was arrested by police on 19 August.

The trial continues.