Son jailed for frenzied knife attack on elderly father

STV

A man who tried to murder his frail 79-year-old father by stabbing him six times in the stomach has been jailed for six and a half years.

Robert McNolty was drunk when he carried out the brutal attack on his father James in the Aberdeen home they shared after preparing the evening meal.

At the High Court in Glasgow on Wednesday, judge Lord Turnbull told McNolty: "You stabbed your father, a frail 79-year-old, six times in the abdomen. It is surprising you did not kill him.

"However, he spent his remaining few months of his life in hospital. Your conduct was disgraceful."

McNolty, 50, admitting trying to murder his father at their home in the city's Loch Street on March 15, last year.

When arrested McNolty told police that the last thing he could remember was cooking some food and then waking up in a police cell.

The court heard that after the attack his father, who was covered in blood, summoned help from a neighbour saying "I've been stabbed by my son."

The pensioner spent a month in intensive care and survived the six knife wounds inflicted by his son, but collapsed and died in a nursing home six months later.

The court heard that McNolty, who could be "short-tempered, unpredictable and violent" had been staying with his father at his sheltered housing complex.

The alarm at the housing control centre sounded at 6.45pm and Mr McNolty was found covered in blood and leaning on his walking frame. A blood-stained knife was discovered in the kitchen.

McNolty was arrested in a nearby pub and said: "I just stabbed him with a stupid knife. I don't know why it happened."

He later told police that he did not remember what happened and his father could not be interviewed because of his poor health.

Psychiatric assessments found that McNolty does not suffer from any mental disorder but from the consequences of heavy drinking.

Defence counsel Jonathan Crowe told the court: "Mr McNolty says he is devastated by the effect this has had on his family. He apologised to the rest of his family for the devastation he has caused."

IN DETAIL