Neighbour 'ambushed and stabbed woman 33 times' as she made her way to work

A woman was stabbed 33 times in an attack by the man next door who lost a long-running dispute and was "out for revenge", a court heard today.

Trevor Gibbon, 48, allegedly armed himself with two knives and ambushed Alison Morrison, 45, as she walked to the station on her way to work on December 18 last year.

The Old Bailey heard how Gibbon carried out the killing the day after he was handed a restraining order having pleaded guilty to harassing Mrs Morrison and her family for years.

As she lay dying in the street near her home, Mrs Morrison repeatedly named her attacker, telling residents who had come to help: "Trevor Gibbon did this to me."

Meanwhile, the killer had fled in his Mercedes but was picked up later the same morning 100 miles away in Lincolnshire, saying he was "heading for the coast".

With dried blood on his hands, he described himself to police as a "f****** coward" and said: "It was over a neighbour dispute."

Opening his murder trial, prosecutor Brian O'Neill QC told jurors:

The dispute dated back to 2011 when Mrs Morrison, her husband Cedric and their teenage son moved next door to Gibbon and his partner in Windsor Crescent, Harrow, north-west London.

Almost immediately, Gibbon complained about the noise from the boy's skateboard but, despite the Morrisons' attempts to placate him, nothing seemed to satisfy him, the jury was told.

By the summer of 2012, Mrs Morrison contacted the local authority for advice, the court heard.

Mr O'Neill said the Morrisons wanted to live in peace with their neighbours but Gibbon seemed to take almost every opportunity to escalate things.

A resident in the street heard Mrs Morrison scream and cry for help and saw her attacker "slowly" stabbing her with a long bladed knife.

Mrs Morrison managed to wriggle free on the ground but Gibbon continued the onslaught in a "measured, almost clam, calculated" fashion, according to another eye witness who called police.

Trevor Gibbon denies murder but has admitted the killing on the basis he was "suffering from an abnormality of mental functioning" which impaired his ability to form rational judgment and exercise self-control. The trial continues.