A SON who beheaded his mother and buried her dismembered body in a shallow grave must stay in hospital, a judge has ordered.

Psychiatrists at The State Hospital, Carstairs, are still trying to assess James Dunleavy's mental condition.

An earlier trial heard harrowing evidence suggesting Philomena Dunleavy, 66, may still have been alive, but unconscious, when her son began to hack off her legs

Mother-of-five Mrs Dunleavy, small, slightly built and shy, had left her Dublin home in early April last year and arrived in Scotland later in the month to visit her eldest son James, 40, also known as Seamus.

Days later she was dead, butchered in the labourer's flat in Balgreen Road, Edinburgh. It was more than a month before Mrs Dunleavy's remains were unearthed.

A jury at the High Court in Edinburgh convicted him, by majority, of a reduced charge of culpable homicide. They also found him guilty of the attempted cover-up.

Lord Jones told Dunleavy then: "You require to be detained under conditions of such security as can be provided in the State Hospital."

Yesterday the judge continued his interim order for the doctors to continue their work.

Defence QC Gordon Jackson told the court Dunleavy wanted the matter dealt with, but given what the doctors had said so far, that was "unrealistic."

Dunleavy is due back in court in June when the case is expected to call at the High Court in Perth.