A frail 83-year-old murdered his nephew and set fire to a home after accusing him of 'stealing' £20,000 from him out of his sister's inheritance, a court has heard.
Alan Wotton, who has a heart condition and wears a hearing aid, stabbed Andrew Avery 11 times following a dispute about inheritance money, jurors were told.
Wotton believed his 65-year-old nephew was deliberately withholding £20,000 that his late sister – Mr Avery's mother – had left for him.
Wotton was staying in his sister June's home in Gosport, Hampshire, following her death but Mr Avery bought his uncle a flat in the town so he could move out.
Prosecutors say Wotton was upset at having to move out and felt 'aggrieved' about the inheritance money so he murdered Mr Avery on the day he was supposed to move out.
They say that Mr Avery was stabbed when he arrived to help Wotton move out of the property on November 29 2024, before Wotton then set fire to the house.
Wotton, who was 82 at the time but is now 83, is accused of murder at Portsmouth Crown Court. The jury has an alternate charge of manslaughter to consider.
Opening the case on Tuesday, prosecutor Jodie Mittell KC told jurors 65-year-old Mr Avery 'died as a result of multiple stab wounds'.
Andrew Avery died after being stabbed 11 times when he arrived to help his uncle move out, Portsmouth Crown Court heard
Pictures of the charred interior of the house were shown to jurors at Portsmouth Crown Court
She added: 'In total, there were seven stab wounds to his torso and four more to his left leg, so 11 stab wounds in total and there's no dispute that Mr Wotton caused those wounds.'
Ms Mittell said that Wotton argued he acted in 'self-defence', but the prosecution alleges that he was in fact the 'aggressor and the attacker' and had 'no need to defend himself at all'.
The court heard that Wotton's sister died in 2023, and his alleged victim, who the prosecutor referred to as 'Andy', was one of two executors of June's will.
Ms Mittell said: 'When June passed away, Mr Wotton travelled to the UK from Hungary where he had been living for a number of years.
'He travelled to his sister's funeral.
'Andy and his brother Colin expected Mr Wotton to return to Hungary after the funeral.
'Andy Avery was the one who was then managing the house sale, so it was with his permission that instead of finding alternative accommodation, he was allowed to stay at his deceased sister's house while the family were making the necessary arrangements.'
The blackened banister and fire-damaged walls following the blaze in November 2024
In November 2024, June Avery's house was sold, which meant Wotton had to leave and move to a new flat.
John Portlock, Mr Avery's husband, told the court that the pair married in August 2024, just three months before his death.
He lent £84,000 to his husband to buy the flat, and Mr Avery spent about £40,000 of his own money on the flat which would be bought in his own name.
Mr Portlock said that Mr Avery wanted to 'look after' his uncle because it was what his mother would have wanted.
He added: 'Andy was very good with money, and he suggested that the money (Wotton) got from June's will, he invested and it would get nearly enough to pay the overheads on the flat per month.'
Ms Mittell told jurors Mr Avery 'hadn't just given (Wotton) his marching orders', and had 'made a considerable number of arrangements' to ease his transition to the flat in Gosport.
She said the motive for the murder 'appears to be a reluctance on Mr Wotton's part to depart his sister's address, and/or him feeling aggrieved about the financial transactions…and him feeling his nephew was stealing his inheritance money'.
Wotton later told police that his sister had left him £20,000 in her will.
According to Ms Mittell, he told them: 'What Andy was suggesting was that he would put Mr Wotton's money into his name and the suggestion he relayed to the police was that the interest from that money could then be used to pay for Mr Wotton's council tax and bills.
'Mr Wotton felt his nephew was trying to steal his money from him.'
He said his nephew had taken a knife from the kitchen and moved towards him with the blade.
Ms Mittell said that after emergency services arrived at the scene, Wotton said his nephew was 'not man enough' and he had taken his knife and 'turned it on him, the b******'.
After being arrested on suspicion of murder, the prosecutor said Wotton told police how he had stabbed his nephew a number of times in the leg, describing Mr Avery as a 'thieving b******'.
When asked if he intended to kill his nephew, he replied: 'Probably, yeah.'
The weapon used to kill Mr Avery was found in the knife block in his mother's kitchen, the victim's blood still on it near the handle.
Sarah Jones KC, defending, told the jurors to consider Wotton's claim that he was defending himself, or alternatively to consider that he had diminished responsibility because he has been diagnosed with a delusional disorder since the killing.
The trial continues.