THE son of Alison Connolly who was murdered in town last year has suffered so badly from anxiety since the killing that he is hardly able to leave his home, a court heard on Monday.

Ciaron Heys, aged 26, who now lives in shared accommodation at Cricklade Road, Swindon, told Wiltshire Magistrates sitting at Swindon that his depression and anxiety had been so bad in the last three months he was almost housebound.

“My mum was murdered by a group of girls a year and a half ago and now I can’t go anywhere that I am likely to be near groups,” he told the court.

Heys appeared before the magistrates on an application to have the 40 hours of unpaid work in the community, ordered after a public altercation with two youngsters in Swindon in March this year and for possession of cannabis, changed to a fine.

“I was in a very bad mood that day and said things to the two kiddies I shouldn’t have done,” he told the court.

He said he had been unable to carry out the community work because of his inability to leave his home.

After the Clerk to the Magistrates explained that it was not possible for a fine to be imposed instead of the community order, chairman of the bench Mrs N O’Connell asked Heys if he believed he could comply with an evening curfew.

Heys said he could, as he found going out difficult anyway.

The magistrates changed the order from work in the community to a tagged curfew between the hours of 8pm and 6am, seven days a week for the next four weeks.

Mrs O’Connell explained that if Heys was a smoker the curfew could include a smoking area in the vicinity of his home.

Following the court’s decision on Monday Heys told the Advertiser that his mother’s murder at the age of just 49 had badly affected his whole family.

Mother-of-eight Alison Connolly was fatally stabbed in May last year by two sisters, Charice and Amberstasia Gassmann then aged 19 and 22 at Evelyn House, Park North after a row with one of her daughters.

The sisters were subsequently arrested and jailed. Charice was convicted of murder and is serving 19 years and Amberstasia is serving 12 years for manslaughter.

“They murdered my mum in cold blood,” Heys told the Advertiser. “I look at her picture every day and it kills me. My six sisters and my brother feel just the same.

“None of the family is coping well,” he added. “My dad, who was with Mum for 33 years, is still in bits. We all suffer every day and always will.”