A Nightingale Hospital facilities manager accused of trying to kill his mother and step-dad told his colleagues he’d not slept for days.

James Wells’ boss at contracting firm ISS, which was kitting out the temporary coronavirus hospital at the Excel Centre last spring, described the 43-year-old as looking hours before the attack as if he had run a marathon.

Wells, of Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire, denies the attempted murder of mum Linda Holford and step-dad Adrian on March 30, 2020, at their home near Marlborough and assaulting a police officer at Swindon hospital. He has pleaded not guilty on reasons of insanity.

On Monday afternoon, jurors at Bristol Crown Court heard that Wells had been tasked with setting up the catering facilities at first Nightingale hospital, a 4,000 bed intensive care unit in the sprawling Excel Centre in London.

The day before the attack, Sunday March 29, he was said to have arrived at the ISS site office at around 7.30am after a day off at his family home in Hampshire. He broke down to a colleague, Dawn Eaton, saying he was three weeks into the job, was overwhelmed and his wife hadn’t let him sleep in the same bed that weekend over concerns about the virus. He told her he wished he hadn’t gone home.

Ms Eaton raised her concerns with her boss, Eddie Fairish, a senior manager and a long-time friend of Wells’.

Mr Fairish told jurors he had spoken to Wells the day before after he sent a “shouty” email to suppliers and another missive to him. He said he hadn’t slept well. Mr Fairish said his friend seemed to be worrying about things which, given the scale of what they were doing at the Nightingale Hospital, were not that important.

The following day, after Ms Eaton approached him, Mr Fairish talked again to Wells. “He appeared tired,” the ISS man told the court on Monday. After a tour of the hospital with the soldiers on site, which had seen the delegation visit the large mortuary that was being built, Wells appeared very upset and agreed with Mr Fairish he would return to his hotel.

The following day, he was back on site but said he had to have a conversation with his line manager. He said he’d spoken to his wife, Wendy, about whether he should remain on the Nightingale project.

Asked by prosecutor Ray Tully about Wells’ demeanour when he’d they’d spoken, Mr Fairish said he looked “almost as if he’d run a marathon”. He appeared tired and was talking about himself in the third person.

Wells later saw an occupational health nurse, Catrina Hughes, to whom he explained he had had an affair with a colleague and was concerned about how his wife would react. She heard him tell his mum, who he called on the phone, that he had not slept for four days.

Mr Fairish went to collect Wells’ things from his room on a floating hotel opposite the Excel Centre. His usually meticulous friend’s room “looked like it had been burgled”, he said.

They drove to Wiltshire together, with Mr Fairish leaving Wells at the door of his mum’s home in Shalbourne, near Marlborough, with a fist bump.

Wells is accused of bludgeoning his mother with a poker, ash pan and tankard later that evening and also attacking his step-dad as he tried to intervene.

Wells denies attempted murder and assaulting a police officer. The trial continues.