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Accused murderer ‘just exploded’

When Michael Villalon explained to police why he had stabbed and hammered his stepfather to death, he said the humiliation had to stop.

Villalon, 29, moved from the Philippines to Australia in April 2009 and began living with his mother Maria and her new husband Keith Chaney in a small two-bedroom home in Mascot in Sydney’s south.

Initially, the pair appeared to get along well, the NSW Supreme Court heard on Monday.

But soon Mr Chaney began “nit-picking” Villalon, hitting him with a towel when he didn’t hang it up and accusing his stepson of being lazy.

On one occasion, the court heard Mr Chaney also punched Villalon twice in the jaw.

Then on February 28, 2012, Maria Villalon returned home from work to discover Mr Chaney on the kitchen floor, with his face covered in blood and a knife still in place below his left eye.

She called Triple 0 and said her husband had been killed.

Villalon has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of substantial impairment.

In the opening day of his trial, crown prosecutor Giles Tabuteau said Villalon’s confessions to police after his arrest “reveals quite a lot about his capacity to understand events, judge whether his acts were right or wrong and control himself”.

In a police interview the day after the killing, he said Villalon told officers he had “just exploded” adding: “I take full responsibility for what I have done”.

“He said he didn’t know the reason for killing Keith but just that he thought the humiliation had to stop,” Mr Tabuteau said.

Villalon said he had stabbed Mr Chaney in the torso, face and chin with one knife before attacking him with a second blade.

As Mr Chaney lay on the floor struggling to breathe, he then picked up a hammer and hit him with that two or three times.

The court heard Mr Chaney had a habit of watching pornography and had been jailed for possessing child pornography.

Although Mr Chaney never touched Villalon sexually, the court heard he had tried to kiss the 29-year-old’s sister.

Villalon’s barrister Janet Manuel SC said Villalon’s attack on Mr Chaney was “irrational”.

“There were a number of things the accused could have done differently … would have done different but for his (mental) illness,” she said.

The trial continues.

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