A dad slashed his throat with a razor blade in a dock after he was convicted of sexually abusing his six-year-old daughter.
Custody officers at Leicester Crown Court on Thursday, February 23, 2018, grappled the man to the ground, to stop him killing himself, as his ex-partner, angrily shouted at him: “Go on bastard do it.”
The defendant, who was already serving a seven year sentence for other crimes, had smuggled in the blade under his wristwatch.
The jury’s verdicts convicting him of twice sexually assaulting the youngster in a tent and common assault, caused him to protest and repeatedly slash at his throat in front of the judge and jury – which resulted in him going to hospital for treatment for “superficial” neck lacerations.
The jury failed to reach a verdict on an allegation he raped his daughter in the tent, on the same night, and were discharged, last week.
The defendant, from Leicester, who is in his 30s, is not being named to protect his daughter’s identity.
He did not attend court for his sentencing hearing on Thursday.
Mark McDonald, the defence barrister, said his client maintained his innocence and was “a mentally fragile and a broken man,” currently on suicide watch in prison.
Judge Robert Brown imposed a five year jail sentence, to run consecutively to the seven years he is already serving for unrelated burglaries, motoring and other offences – making a total of 12 years.
The defendant’s partner, the girl’s mother, was found guilty of child neglect, by failing to report to the police what the girl told her about what happened to her in the tent, and has yet to be sentenced.
The mother was in the dock when he self-harmed with the razor, and shouted encouragement to “go on” and kill himself, also calling him “a bastard.”
Richard Thatcher, prosecuting, said that a victim impact report on the child revealed the abuse had affected her school work.
She has been suffering from nightmares.
He said: “She is now wary of strangers and feels everyone is staring at her and knows what happened.
“She can’t concentrate at school.
“She becomes tearful and can get angry.”
Before sentence was passed, the defendant’s barrister, Mr McDonald said: “He doesn’t accept the guilty verdicts by this jury.”
Mr McDonald said: “He’s a persistent offender of violence, dishonesty and road traffic offending and is a serial offender, but that is in a different category to this which is something that goes against every grain of what he’s stood for.
“This is a man who says he would be almost violent towards someone who had committed this type of offence, not the person committing it.
“He sees his life as destroyed; he’s a broken man.
“That’s demonstrated no more clearly than his attempt to kill himself in court.
“He had a razorblade under his watch whilst in prison and came here, to this court, with a razorblade.
“As soon as he heard that verdict he took it out and slashed his throat.
“As the dock officers bundled him to the floor they were holding his hand to try and prevent him.
“He wanted to die right there.
“His ex-partner was encouraging him to take his life in the dock…saying ‘go on do it, go on” and called him a ‘bastard.’
“She hates him.
“His wounds were bleeding and he was discharged that night from hospital, back to prison.
“A formerly strong and determined man, who dressed well, ended up covered in blood and broken; mentally vulnerable.
“He is now on constant suicide watch.”
Judge Brown said that he had not realised, after the verdicts, the defendant had a blade.
He said: “I thought he had an outburst with his fists and the security staff overpowered and pretty much had him under control.”
Mr McDonald reminded the judge that he had left the court, while order in court was restored, adding: “He slashed his throat, I saw the marks across his throat and he did shed blood just outside the door of the dock.”
The barrister said: “Why would someone do that?
“It could be that he’s guilty and wants to end it or that he’s not guilty and cannot live with what the jury found, on the evidence.
“We do know a person of normal mind wouldn’t do it, he is mentally fragile.
“He still wants to take his own life.”
He was given a sentence of five years in jail.
Read more at Mirror
