A WOMAN has told a court her tearful son confessed to killing a man in a Colchester flat.

Jon Williams was “crying and shaking” when he told his mother what he had done.

His mum Jane Williams told the jury: “I asked him what happened and he said he had gone to do a robbery, and it had gone wrong, and that he had killed somebody.

“His legs were shaking and he was crying. He said he wanted to hand himself in to the police. He said he did not like what he had done or what he had become.”

Mrs Williams was giving evidence in the trial of her son and two others accused of murdering Graham Reeve, 55, at his flat in Charles Pell Road, Colchester, last summer.

The trial at Chelmsford Crown Court has heard Mr Reeve was kidnapped, tortured and then murdered after refusing to reveal his bank card pin number.

Eleven attempts had been made to withdraw money from cashpoints, but they had all failed, it has been claimed.

The prosecution alleges that after each attempt, those responsible returned to assault Mr Reeve.

Mrs Williams told the jury her son phoned and asked to stay the night, arriving at around 11.30pm on Monday, July 6.

Describing what happened next, she said: “He was pacing up and down and I asked him what was wrong. He was crying and said he had killed somebody.

“I do not think I took it in. I thought he had a fight with somebody and overreacted. His response was that he had murdered somebody.

“He said he had gone to do a robbery and it had gone wrong.

“I could not take in what he was trying to tell me.

“He said he was on his own and it was on the Greenstead estate somewhere, but he did not elaborate as to where.

“He said he did not like what he had done, or what he had become.”

Patricia Lynch QC, prosecuting, asked her what she meant by this.

Mrs Williams replied: “Because of drink and drugs. He was not the person that he used to be.”

She also told the jury her son said something about stabbing the man and tying his hands behind his back.

She added: “He said he moved the body from the flat to another flat. It was empty, as the person that lived there was in prison.”

Miss Lynch asked her: “Did he tell you what he had done to the victim?” Mrs Williams replied: “Strangled him.”

She also said he told her he had not slept for two weeks as he had “done a load of cocaine” and wanted to sleep before handing himself in.

The next morning, Mrs Williams said, police were contacted and her son was arrested.

Two men and a woman deny murdering Mr Reeve between July 4 and 7 last year. Trisha Levett, 28, Danny Howsego, 36, and Williams, 22, all from Stanley Wooster Way, Colchester, deny murder.

Levett and Howsego have denied another charge of robbing Mr Reeve of a bank card. Williams has admitted the charge.

The trial continues.