Statements from multiple neighbours who witnessed the incident were also read to the jury.

One woman said Patterson had been mowing that morning and chatted to her and her father as they had a cup of tea. She said he seemed “OK, but a bit hyper, almost like he was a little bit distressed”.

She later watched Patterson screaming “You’re evil” and holding an axe, which the prosecutor said was a hatchet. The neighbour described Patterson as “full of so much anger” and “going berserk”.

Another woman said she saw a man “king hit” a woman with long black hair, who then fell back.

“The scream was chilling,” she said. “I didn’t see her make any movement after this.”

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That neighbour said she watched the man hit the woman at least 10 or 20 more times, then about four times with a brick, which the prosecutor said was determined to be a rock.

She saw the man use an aerosol can and a lighter and said, “on the third attempt, I saw a fireball”.

A couple said they drove towards the smoke and initially thought there was a small pile of clothes in the yard before realising it was a person. The woman called triple zero and said she was “screaming”, telling the operator there was a body on fire and police needed to come “now”.

Opening the defence case, public defender Michael King said Patterson had loved his sister who “until that terrible day, he got along with very well”.

He said Patterson, who was a long-term user of ice and cannabis, moved in with James months earlier after his long-term relationship broke down, and his mental health began to deteriorate. King said Patterson’s “descent into clearly what was a form of madness” included a belief that the voices in his head were from his COVID-19 shot.

“When he did kill Jody James he thought she was possessed by a devil, he thought she was part of the Illuminati,” the barrister said.

He acknowledged Patterson killed James in a “horrible, violent manner”, but said his client “didn’t know what he was doing ... was seriously wrong” and should be found not criminally responsible.

“When you come to look at this matter, please don’t let your humanity get lost in the horror of what happened on that day in November 2021,” King said to the jury.

“Jason Patterson killed his sister Jody, but he isn’t a murderer.”

The Crown argues Patterson’s hallucinations arose from the temporary effects of ingesting ice, and that he does not fit the criteria for the mental health defences.

King said there was no dispute Patterson was in a psychotic state, but there was debate over the name and cause of his psychosis. He anticipated evidence from two experts for the defence that Patterson was suffering from the psychiatric disorder of schizophrenia or schizophreniform.

The trial continues before Justice Hament Dhanji.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732).