A CONSPIRACY theorist stabbed a man to death in front of his young son after a road-rage incident descended into violence.

Alexander Layton plunged the large kitchen knife into James Stokoe’s leg and arm in a ‘cold, considered and brutal manner’, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The 40-year-old bled to death in his BMW following the angry confrontation on Trenchard Avenue, Thornaby, after Layton walked out in front of the car after getting off a bus on May 15 last year.

Jurors heard how the 34-year-old pulled the large knife out of a rucksack and stabbed his victim while he was sitting in the driver’s seat with his young son on a booster seat in the rear.

Peter Makepeace, prosecuting, said in the early hours of the fatal day Layton had spent time reading conspiracy theories about 5G technology and David Icke’s website.

Just hours later he sent an email to Stockton Borough Council saying he was suicidal and desperate for money for food and hearing before sending a number of threatening text messages to a man he claimed owed him money.

Mr Makepeace said Layton ‘expressed extreme aggression’ and there was a series of escalating threats in the hours leading up the to the fatal stabbing.

Following Layton's arrest in a pizza shop in Great Ayton the evening after the alleged murder he claimed he acted in self-defence.

Mr Makepeace said: "Being angry because someone has the audcity to challenge, being angry and attacking an unarmed man with a knife is not self defence.

"Mr Layton could simply have kept walking, what he did was unnecessary, unreasonble and unlawful.

"Following his arrest one of the things he said was 'I didn't mean to do it. It was an accident' - this was no accident."

Layton, of Shackleton Close, Thornaby, denies murder.

The trial continues.

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