MEDICAL experts are today battling it out in court over whether a man accused of killing a pensioner in her own home was mentally ill at the time.

Prosecution and defence in the murder trial of Jamie Boult are cross examining each other's witnesses to argue whether or not he was sane when he battered to death widow Delia Hughes in her Ocean Village home in August last year.

As previously reported both sides agree that Boult lay in wait in the great grandmother's flat before attacking her repeatedly with a lump hammer and the stealing her jewellery.

But the defence argues it was Boult was mentally ill at the time, suffering severe depression.

Psychiatrist Dr Dai Powell, under cross examination, told jurors Winchester Crown Court that he was satisfied that Boult had been severely depressed and was not thinking rationally at the time of the killing.

He said Boult had begun to feel his life was intolerable and that before he killed 85-year-old Mrs Hughes there had been an "explosion" within him.

A psychiatrist witness of the prosecution case, who believes Boult was suffering a social phobia not a chronic mental illness, is expected to be cross examined this afternoon.

Boult, 25, of Chessel Crescent, Southampton, denies murder and aggravated burglary of another property.

The case continues