Higher Walton man tells court he 'went into a frenzy' and cannot remember viciously stabbing parents to death

A Higher Walton man who stabbed both his parents to death and mutilated his father’s body says he acted in self defence – and denies all memory of killing his loving mother.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Lee Tipping killed his parents Anthony Tipping and Patricia Livesey at their family home in Cann Bridge Street on November 20 2021, shortly after the couple returned from a night out.

The 36-year-old, who admits manslaughter but denies murder, told Preston Crown Court today: “I went into a frenzy. (My mum) was trying to calm me down. The problem was I didn’t know it was her. It was only when I slowed down and sat down with my head in my hands that I realised it was my mum.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Tipping claims he acted in self defence when he knifed his father, Anthony, 165 times following an argument, and that he burned his face with a lighter and aerosol to ‘warn him off’.

Photo Neil Cross; The funeral for Higher Walton couple Tricia Livesey and Anthony TippingPhoto Neil Cross; The funeral for Higher Walton couple Tricia Livesey and Anthony Tipping
Photo Neil Cross; The funeral for Higher Walton couple Tricia Livesey and Anthony Tipping

He said: “I was defending myself, and there was a battle going on between me and him.”

When asked by David McLachlan, prosecuting, why he continued to stab his father after he was dead, he replied: “I didn’t know if he was dead or not.”

The crown claims that Tipping turned on his ‘loving’ mother because she was a witness, and he had told police he ‘didn’t want to be arrested’.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But Tipping said that he lied to police about remembering the incident when he was apprehended and in subsequent police interviews because ‘if (he) didn’t make up a story they would make one up for (him)’.

Patricia Livesey and Anthony TippingPatricia Livesey and Anthony Tipping
Patricia Livesey and Anthony Tipping

He said: “I don’t really have a high opinion of the police and I was in a bad mood. I was just in a rage. Police had arrested me. They were actually quite rough with me. I’ve never had any previous convictions.”

Tipping and parents had troubled relationship

Throughout the hearing, the jury heard how Anthony Tipping and Patricia Livesey had struggled with their son, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, OCD and anxiety.

Tipping said his father had been ‘bullying him all his life’, and that ‘50 per cent of the time he was a nice guy, 50 per cent he was horrible’.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He said: “They went out on days from 9am to 5pm with no explanation. I tried ringing them; they’d ignore their phones. When they came back they’d say ‘it’s nothing to do with you’."

He added that his parents would leave him in the house with carrots, potatoes, green beans and canned food to eat while they visited KFC and McDonalds.

"They were trying to snide me by going out,” he said.

He claimed that witness accounts of clashes with his parents were exaggerated, and that evidence given by a local barmaid, Tracey Ainsworth – who said Mrs Livesey had told her Tipping had slipped a note under her bedroom door, threatening to kill her – was untrue.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He said: “They don’t like me… She gives me evils and says nasty comments to me, brushing past me like I was a piece of dirt.”

Andrew Ford, defending, said: "Lee Tipping has an enduring schizophrenic illness that has led to difficulties and some cognitive deficits, difficulties in interpersonal relationships.

"He says he was always fearful of being taken back to hospital by his parents and this had a clear basis in reality. His parents had been engaged in getting him to hospital twice, and his father restrained him in some kind of handcuff once.

“His father allegedly made threats to have him sectioned.

“Lee Tipping and his father allegedly had a long standing conflict in which his father taunted him. Tipping responded with aggression. His father won by responding with further aggression.”

He said Tipping responded ‘with fearfulness and anger’ to his father’s behaviour, and that his living situation had ‘recognised risk factors in people with schizophrenia and can lead to instability and risks to oneself and others.”

The trial continues.