A MOTHER told a murder trial she called the police after her son came home covered in blood and with a knife in his trouser pocket.

Pauline Bell, 58, was giving evidence at the trial of 18-year-old Graeme Bell, who denies murdering 48-year-old Patrick Ferguson in Croftfoot, Glasgow, on February 19 last year and robbing him of quantity of cannabis resin.

Mrs Bell, who is retired, told the High Court in Glasgow she was wakened in the early hours of February 19 by her son knocking on the front door.

She told prosecutor David Taylor she let him in.

Mrs Bell added: “I walked upstairs behind him. His clothes were heavily stained on the left hand side. It was a red jacket it just looked dark.

She was asked by Mr Taylor if she saw anything else and replied “Not until he got upstairs. I noticed there was a knife hanging out of the trouser pocket. I took it and said ‘I’m going to call the police”.

“There was blood on the knife. I don’t like the sight of blood. So I just wanted the police to come and sort out what had happened. I didn’t know if Graeme was injured or someone else.”

She said she asked her son, who had blood on his T-shirt and hands, what had happened and he told her his hands were cut.

Mrs Bell added: “II really got it in my mind that he had been in a fight. I said I’m phoning the police and he said ‘you don’t need to phone the police mum its my blood.’ She said that at one point she was holding her son with one hand and the knife with the other.

She told the jury: “I didn’t want him to go anywhere. I wanted him to stay until the police arrived. He was upset and frightened. He just kept saying you don’t need to mum it’s me that’s bleeding.”

Bell is also accused of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by attempting to prevent his mother from making a 999 call and claiming the apparent blood on his clothing was his.

He denies all the charges and the trial continues.