South Yorkshire: Addicted man left scarred in attack by abused son

Samuel Stephenson, 25, claimed as he was growing up his drug-addicted father Paul had electrocuted him, tried to shoot him, paid yobs to beat him up and attempted to run him over.

The final straw for Stephenson was when his father tried to get him to take the blame for storing firearms at the home they shared and threatened to shoot his dog.

After they rowed over loud music being played by Stephenson at midnight, the 25-year-old launched a ferocious, half-hour long attack on his father biting him all over his face, ears and body.

Before launching the vicious assault, drunken Stephenson shouted at his father: “You know what you have done.”

After hearing of the background to the case, Judge Roger Keen, sitting at Sheffield Crown Court, said he would reduce Stephenson’s inevitable jail term by as much as he could.

Stephenson’s younger brother Joshua, 21, gave evidence in support of his brother in the dock and both men sobbed as he recounted his father’s violence towards them.

He said: “He did a lot of nasty things. I remember him pushing my mum about and screaming at her as well.

“As long as he is off his head with his methadone he’s fine. I wish me and Sam could have kept away from him.”

Judith Seaborne, for Stephenson, said although the injuries to his dad were “awful” and he was a vulnerable man there had been a “catalogue of simmering provocation”.

Stephenson had only recently moved back into his father’s home in Stocksbridge, Sheffield, after splitting up from his wife and two children.

He admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent and carrying a lock knife in public without lawful excuse on July 16.

Brian Outhwaite, prosecuting, said Stephenson’s father, who is in his 40s, suffers from ill-health and has a serious heart condition which makes it difficult for him to walk.

He is registered disabled and needs carers four times a day.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Stephenson’s father said: “I honestly thought I was going to die.” He said he had been left disfigured and self-conscious about his appearance.

He added: “I will not feel safe in my home when I return.”

Stephenson’s father managed to ring the police from his mobile phone. They found him almost unable to move because of the pain and with his face covered in blood, the court was told.

His son was arrested nearby and was drunk with the knife in his possession. He admitted the attack.

Stephenson told officers how he had suffered years of abuse from his father and the threat to kill his dog was the final straw.

Mrs Seaborne said her client was a hard-working man who had done a milk round in the past and he expressed his regrets that he went so far in his violence towards his father.

Judge Keen said Samuel had used his teeth as the “principal weapon” and left his father disfigured. He had served a three-year jail term in 2006 for possessing an imitation firearm which aggravated his position.

“Having said that this is an unusual case,” said the judge. He went on: “You fall to be sentenced thereafter on the basis that over your lifetime there has been simmering resentment that amounts to provocation leading to your behaviour.

“You have been physically abused by your father and it is clear to me that when you were in drink your rage overcame you when he made a further threat of violence to a dog of yours.

“This was an outpouring of anger against your father but this is still a serious criminal offence which calls for a lengthy period of custody.”

He jailed Stephenson for four years and six months.