Christmas Common murder accused 'obsessed by conspiracy theories'

The 24-year-old is accused of murdering his mother, Carole, and gouging her eyes in a National Trust woodland at Christmas Common last October. He pushed one of her eyes down her throat and put the other in his jacket pocket.

O’Hara Wright, who at the time had not yet been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, later told psychiatrists he believed that his mother was a demon and he was a god.

In a series of heartbreaking witness statements read to jurors at Oxford Crown Court this afternoon, the defendant’s father, older brother and sister described him becoming increasingly obsessed with conspiracy theories in the years leading up to his mother’s death.

O’Hara Wright’s brother, Martin, said it was ‘pointless’ trying to argue with him about the theories.

He had become so enraged when his father Miles questioned him about the QAnon conspiracy, whose proponents believe Donald Trump will break up a paedophile ring that counts Barack Obama and Joe Biden among its members, O’Hara Wright was said to have kicked a fan, stormed out of the family home in Uxbridge and was later found having torn off his shirt.

On one occasion the family, who live near RAF Northolt, had been woken up by a circling plane. Daniel was said to have told them: "I think it's here for me. I know stuff the government doesn't want me to know."

On Christmas Day, the meal was broken up by a small fire in O’Hara Wright’s small artist’s studio at the back of the house. His sister Michelle said: "[Daniel] started laughing and talking about alternate dimensions and how he'd just died in another universe."

The defendant’s sister was shocked by his behaviour when she took him out for a meal in early March. The other family members were away on a skiing holiday in Austria. The defendant, who had shaved off his hair and beard, told his sister he was an ‘inter-dimensional shaman’.

In another incident, he was said to have eaten seeds he’d ordered online then walked around the house naked. “I’ve taken nature. I’m enlightened,” he was said to have told his family.

Family members painted a picture of a man who was devoted to his mother. His father, Miles, said in a witness statement read to the court: "Daniel and Carole got on very, very well. I have never known them even to have an argument. Daniel would often leave notes for his mum around the house, telling her he loved her.”

Those notes included the message ‘I love you’ written in a box of teabags so she would see it every time she made a cuppa.

During the lockdowns last year, mum and son had got into the habit of taking long walks. The day before her death, they had posed for happy selfies at Surrey beauty spot Virginia Water.

On October 23, they left for Christmas Common, Oxfordshire, after lunch. When the pair had not returned by 7pm, when Mrs Wright usually began cooking curry for the family’s weekly Friday night meal, husband Miles and son Martin began growing worried and called the police.

O’Hara Wright’s relatives said they were shocked about what happened, describing the defendant as a ‘very gentle character’.

The family paid tribute to mum Carole, 62, who had taken early retirement from a career in education. Husband Miles, who married Carole in the 1980s, said she was a ‘caring and gentle person’.

O’Hara Wright, formerly of Regent Avenue, Uxbridge, denies one count of murder.

Judge Ian Pringle QC explained to the jury that the defendant had been excused from attending the trial.

The trial, expected to last around a week, continues.

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