WARNING: Some people may find the content of this article disturbing

A man gouged out his mother’s eyes and attacked her with sticks, a broken kombucha bottle and his feet in the belief the woman was a demon – and he was a god.

Carole Wright, 62, and son Daniel O’Hara Wright, 24, were walking in National Trust woodland at Christmas Common, near Stokenchurch, on October 23 last year when he launched the violent attack, Oxford Crown Court heard.

He later told psychiatrists he’d needed to sexually dominate the demon, with O’Hara Wright’s DNA also found on his alleged victim’s body.

Opening the case for the prosecution on Monday afternoon, Alan Blake told the jury the defendant fled across country after the attack – discarding some of his clothing on the way.

He jumped in front of a car, hitting the bonnet and windscreen. He told the driver of the car he had fallen from the sky and asked if she believed in god.

They drove a short distance before he leapt from the vehicle after a tussle over her bag, it was said.

O’Hara Wright made his way to a nearby detached house and let himself in while the occupants were in a sauna or pool.

Police officers, who had been called out by the terrified driver, were by this point searching for an injured man.

During the search, Ms Wright’s body was found in woodland round 400 to 500m from the National Trust car park at Watlington Hill.

The officers found the bloodied defendant in the bathroom of the house. He had electrocuted his right arm, which later had to be amputated, and he’d slashed himself with a knife found in the farmhouse.

“I have hurt my mum,” he was said to have told the first responders. Later arrested on suspicion of murder, O’Hara Wright replied: “That’s fine, I understand.”

He was treated on the intensive care unit at John Radcliffe Hospital. On November 1, he was said to have spat faeces at a police officer, PC Ben Lewis. The following day he allegedly tried to stab nurse Sergio Juarez in the neck with a spoon handle before turning the cutlery on himself.

Mr Blake told the jury that two psychiatrists had assessed the defendant, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia after the incident last October. They concluded he’d been suffering delusions at the time of the alleged murder and was insane.

However, the prosecutor said it would be for the jury to decide whether the defendant was not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.

“You will need to consider the opinions of the expert psychiatrists instructed by the defence and the prosecution and determine whether you accept their assessments that Daniel was suffering from a severe mental disorder at the time and that he was probably legally insane," he said.

"If you do find that he did kill Carole but was probably insane at the time then the correct verdict is one of not guilty by reason of insanity.

“That decision is not one for doctors. It is not one for lawyers. It is one for you, informed and assisted by the experts who will give evidence before you.”

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. Mr Blake later said O’Hara Wright was resident at Broadmoor secure hospital.

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