Man jailed after stabbing father

A man who stabbed his father 16 times before leaving him bleeding in his bedroom has been jailed.

Martyn Croft, 31, of Ashfield Avenue, King's Heath, Birmingham, was given a seven-and-a-half year sentence at Northampton Crown Court.

He pleaded guilty to wounding with intent after driving from his home to his father's house in Northampton armed with a kitchen knife.

Brian Croft survived the attack, despite a laceration to his liver.

The court heard Croft had driven to his father's house, angry over allegations that his father had viewed sex images on his computer.

Intensive care

When he arrived at the property in the early hours of 24 January, he went to his father's bedroom and stabbed him with a knife with an 8in (20cm) blade - seven times in the chest and nine in the back.

After the attack he drove back to his home in Birmingham but crashed his car.

Having stabbed him you just left him bleeding Judge Charles Wide QC

He then told police to call an ambulance for his father, and revealed what had happened.

Sentencing him, Judge Charles Wide QC said: "You are highly intelligent but you have problems in your life and this crime was committed against the background of a degree of family turmoil.

"What makes this particularly serious is that there was an element of calculation in this."

Naomi Gilchrist, prosecuting, told the court the attack happened a few weeks after Croft's mother and father had separated.

She said Croft had been "brooding" on the situation, as well as allegations that images of a sexual nature had been found on his father's computer.

Andrew Jefferies, defending Croft, said he had been under extreme stress at the time of the attack.

He said: "This was a very specific set of circumstances arising at a particular time in this young man's life.

"I ask that you see it as an isolated, very out of character, incident."