WARSAW: Relatives yesterday told the trial in the southern city of Krakow of a 16-year-old boy who hacked his parents to death, that his strict father made the family's life hell.

The boy, identified only as Tomasz S., killed his parents while they slept on September 26, after a row with his father.

Relatives described the boy as well behaved, protective, ready to help and intelligent but blamed conflicts in the family on the father, Stanislaw S., saying he was very exacting, despotic, violent and emotionally cold.

The court recessed pending a psychiatric report on the boy.