A man who stabbed a grandfather to death in a road rage incident phoned his mum and chillingly told her "I killed someone", a court heard.
Matthew Daley, 35, denies murdering Don Lock after a minor car crash but admits manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
His mother Lynda wept in court as she told how officers threatened to charge her mentally ill son with wasting police time for reporting hearing voices in his head.
She told a jury: “Matthew often thought people were talking about him and saying horrible things. Especially from the nearby working men’s club.
“He would call the police, who would sit him down and explain they would have to charge him with wasting their time if he didn’t stop.
“Because he couldn’t call them to help him get through it he used to stay out until late at night when the working men’s club shut.”
Mrs Daley said the family had begged for Matthew to be sectioned.
She said: “It has been continual for the last 10 years, pleading with people to help. He was often delusional.
“He could hear 20 to 30 voices in his head at once.
“We had two meetings over 10 years but now I know they should have been every six months.”
The Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust wrote to the family last week, apologising, saying the care “should have been better”.
Mrs Daley told Lewes crown court: “It’s 10 years too late.”
The family had feared the day would come when their “nightmares came true” and in the week leading up to the road rage stabbing of Mr Lock, 79, last July, Daley had been “close to the edge”.
He was worried about the break-up of a relationship, his dad being out of the country, and debts. Daley's split with his girlfriend of 13 months had “caused him great anxiety and stress”, his mother said.
Her son, who was diagnosed with autism and paranoid schizophrenia, had stopped taking his medication.
Mr Lock was stabbed 39 times after hitting the back of Daley’s car near Worthing, West Sussex. Daley was arrested the next day.
Mrs Daley told the court she feared her son was involved when she turned on her television and saw that the killing happened in Findon.
She tried unsuccessfully to get hold of Daley, then headed to the stables where he worked and found his damaged car parked there.
As a result of seeing the dented vehicle, Mrs Daley said her family decided to go to Worthing police station where Daley called her just as she was about to enter.
Daley told her: "I need to know where you are and that I can trust you."
He then said he had done "something really bad or something really wrong".
In a quiet voice, he went on: "I killed someone", before adding: "I want you to think about what I just said and ring me back in 10 minutes."
Mrs Daley said the crash “would be a trigger” for her son’s stresses as the car being off the road would make it hard for him to see his animals, which were “therapeutic”.
She said: “Running used to calm him down as well. He would run two or three marathons a week across the Downs. He would take his goats with him.”
She said Daley had kept three goats in his flat in Worthing at one stage.
The trial continues.