DOUBLE MURDER OR SELF-DEFENCE?
* William and Pauline Thomas died at their Wangaratta farm on April 21, 2013.
* Ian Thomas, 38, is accused of strangling his mother and then lying in wait for his father with a shotgun.
* Thomas, formerly of Perth, argues he came home to find his mother dead at his father's hand, and he shot his father in self-defence.
* Thomas also says the shock of seeing his mother's body led him to beat his father's skull with a wooden pick axe handle.
* Prosecutors say Thomas moved his parents' bodies into the sitting room and wrapped them in doonas.
* The next day he allegedly drove with his girlfriend to a bushland area where he dropped the murder weapons and other items into a hole and concealed it with foliage.
* That same day Thomas called his parents' home in Wangaratta and left a message in what the Crown says was an attempt to create an alibi.
* Thomas' defence lawyer says his girlfriend is a liar.
* He also says the Thomases were a divided family with a somewhat volatile relationship.
* The trial continues in the Victorian Supreme Court.
© AAP 2024
