A MAN accused of killing his mother by pushing her down the stairs during an argument at her Clent home has been refused bail by a judge.

Wayne Matthews, 45, was remanded in custody at Warwick Crown Court on Thursday, June 21.

Matthews is charged with the murder of his 74-year-old mother Barbara Matthews at her home in Walton Pool Lane, Clent, in August last year, while he was living there at the time.

He was remanded in custody after he was charged and Kidderminster magistrates committed the case to Worcester Crown Court.

But the case switched to Warwick as the judge who would normally have dealt with it was not sitting.

Prosecutor Simon Phillips said the case could now be listed at Worcester Crown Court for a plea and trial preparation hearing on July 19, suggesting a date for a trial as December 10.

Worcester Crown Court had also suggested a trial date of September 10, but Mr Phillips said it would be “too early because of the potential need for experts to prepare report”.

Mrs Matthews is said to have died from ‘positional asphyxiation’ as a result of the position in which she ended up lying at the bottom of the stairs.

Matthews’s barrister William Dudley said the cause of death ‘is unlikely to be in dispute,’ but the results of a second post mortem had not yet been released.

He added: “Ultimately the defence will be a factual one of what caused the deceased to fall down the stairs, if that is the cause of injury.”

Mr Dudley applied for Matthews to be granted bail and said Matthews had found accommodation at a hostel in Washwood Heath, Birmingham, which was available to him.

Judge Andrew Lockhart QC rejected the bail application and remanded Matthews in custody, adjourning the case until the hearing at Worcester Crown Court in July.

He added he will refer the trial date to Worcester Crown Court, to see if it could be later than September.

He also said a psychiatric assessment of Matthews should be obtained in case that was an issue which arose.