A grandson allegedly killed his 74-year-old grandfather while video calling his girlfriend, a court heard. Jack Forde, 25, is accused of beating Christopher Martin to death at their shared home in New Cross, south east London.
Forde allegedly FaceTimed his girlfriend during the attack in the early hours of May 28, 2021 and threatened to stab her mother.
A post mortem examination gave the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head, chest and abdomen.
Forde was arrested at 4.45am and was taken to hospital due to his erratic behaviour.
He was due to plead guilty to manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility at the Old Bailey today via video link from HMP Belmarsh but did not appear as the Wi-Fi on the first floor of the court was not working.
He will now enter his pleas at a hearing on April 12, where he will appear in person.
Judge Sarah Munro, KC, apologised to members of Mr Martin’s family who had attended the hearing expecting to see Forde confess to what he did.
The judge said: “Apologies to the family who were clearly expecting something to happen today.
“I’m afraid these technical issues do happen. Sometimes everything works well and sometimes it doesn’t work at all.
“But certainly you can come back on Wednesday and we can make arrangements for you to appear remotely via link if you wish.”
Forde, of Wild Goose Drive, New Cross, is charged with murder.
