A MAN who attacked his North Wales mother with an axe also dumped the headless body of his friend in a park, it was claimed yesterday. The attack on Christine Artiss at her home near Corwen by her son John Latus, came 12 months after he allegedly murdered his friend, Julian Sanders, and dumped his remains at Cofton Park, near Birmingham. Latus denies the murder of Mr Sanders. Chester Crown Court heard that Latus, 33, already convicted last year of the axe attack on his mother, blamed her for his unhappy childhood and for abandoning him when he was about 15 so that he had to live with family friend Colin Foulkes, whom he claimed sexually abused him. The jury heard that as well as the attack on his mother, Latus had also been convicted last year of killing Colin Foulkes, whose naked body had been found close to the remote house they shared, the Gate House, Wroxeter, near Shrewsbury, between May 10 and 13, 2001. Stephen Linehan QC, prosecuting, said previous convictions were not normally mentioned to juries unless it was relevant - but they had to under-stand how he was linked to Julian Sanders. Foulkes worked at the Atlas Foundry in Shrewsbury and it was here that Sanders came to work in 1999. He became friendly with both Foulkes and Latus. On May 29, 2000, when the headless body was found, police had nothing to identify the body but found a key in the trousers. The prosecution believed the man had been killed with an axe. Eventually, Julian Sanders was reported missing and his description matched the dead body. Police found the key opened the door to Sanders' lodgings in Shrews-bury. A check on Sanders' telephone calls led police to The Gate House and Latus. No forensic evidence linked Latus to the headless body. On May 12, 2001, almost 12 months on, Latus visited his mother, Christine Artiss, at Glanrafon, Corwen. "He was talking to her in an odd fashion and referring to the fact that she had dumped him at The Gate House. "What she didn't know was that before she had come in he had taken from the next-door-neighbour's prop-erty an axe which he had hidden in the waistband of his trousers. "As she was sitting on the settee, he quite suddenly drew the axe and struck her on the head with the flat side, not the blade. He struck a second blow and mercifully for her the wooden handle broke with the force of the blow and the axe head flew off and he ceased the attack," said Mr Linehan. Police arrested Latus as he drove back to Shrewsbury. At The Gate House police found blood stains in Foulkes' bedroom. Foulkes' naked body was discovered. He had been struck repeatedly about the head with what the prosecution claim was an axe. "Take all these factors together and it points, we say, beyond doubt that it was Latus who killed Julian Sanders and took his body to Birmingham." The case continues. | 
