A dad attacked his own nan in a topless street rampage over a bottle of vodka.
David Wade, 31, of Britannia Road, Cuddington, went on a rampage at his nan Brenda Wood’s bungalow on Beech Road in Runcorn on Monday, November 1, last year after an “argument broke out over a bottle of vodka”.
Anna Price, prosecuting today at Chester Crown Court, said Wade left the house and started arguing with his dad Ian James, who was sitting in a red Ford Fiesta.
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Neighbours saw Wade “opened the passenger door and leaned in trying to punch Mr James”, and Mrs Wood saw him kick a window through before dragging his dad from the vehicle.
Another family member, Sian Huskisson, emerged from the bungalow and Wade “went for her” then kicked Mr James a few times.
He then appeared to stab his father.
Ms Price said: “Brenda Wood described the defendant stabbing Ian James three times - once to the head and twice to the belly.”
Despite there being evidence he was taken to hospital, Mr James “said he didn’t want to make a statement of complaint”.
When Wade’s nan tried to restrain him, he pushed her to the ground and at one point “sat on her”.
Wade tried to pull the car door off and when she told him to stop he threw her to the ground, and after assaulting his nan, he smashed a window on her bungalow.
A neighbour, Andrew Smith, tried to intervene and Wade threatened him and said: “Do you want some?”
Mr Smith took Mrs Wood to safety inside his house and when he came back out saw Wade was carrying a knife in each hand.
Wade “swung” at him but Mr Smith ducked out of the way and backed off, before Wade turned back to his dad making a “stabbing motion”.
Mr Smith’s wife Nicola rang the police.
A doorbell camera clip played in court showed Wade coming at Mr Smith and taking a swing before heading away from the house.
When police arrived at about 5.30pm, Wade took off his top and “was standing bare-chested in the road” with a knife in each hand - one with a six-inch blade, the other a two-inch.
Wade brandished the knives at the officers, prompting PC Craig Higginson of Cheshire Constabulary to draw his Taser and shout at the topless knifeman to drop the weapons.
He refused and went inside the bungalow where he damaged ornaments, other items, curtains and blinds.
Wade called out: “The next person who comes in here is getting gutted like a fish.”
He threw objects from the house and threatened: “I’m going to kill the f***ing lot of you”.
With firearms support, they entered the bungalow and restrained him.
Five knives were seized from the scene.
Wade was taken to hospital by ambulance and sedated.
He was arrested the following day and told police in hospital he “couldn’t remember anything and denied stabbing anyone”.
When deemed fit for release three weeks later he was interviewed and gave "no comment" answers.
At the first opportunity in magistrates’ court, Wade pleaded guilty to affray, two counts of having a bladed article in public and two of criminal damage.
In her victim statement, Brenda Wood said the house cost £500 to clean, and the window £123.80 to repair, but she continued to find drops of blood afterwards, and there was further damage because the bungalow was “trashed” and bloodied resulting in her throwing away her curtains and blinds.
She said the incident “came completely out of the blue” and had “broken her heart” as they had never fallen out.
A statement from Nicola Smith said she saw Wade “attempting to stab her husband” in an ordeal she compared to being “like a horror film”.
It had caused anxiety, particularly during any time her husband returns home late as she worries what might have happened, and she fears Wade “coming back to finish the job”.
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Wade had 18 convictions for 42 offences, most of which dated back to when he was a juvenile including actual bodily harm, aggravated burglary, weapons offences, and wounding, but the most recent involving drink driving in June last year.
The court was told he served the equivalent of seven months in custody on remand ahead of his sentencing hearing.
Rhia Abukhalil, defending, pleaded mitigation for Wade’s guilty pleas, argued against any statutory minimum for a third blade offence due to the time elapsed since his last weapons offences, and made the case that Wade was now “stable” because he was back on his medication and recognised he needs to keep taking them “for the rest of his life”.
She said the incident on November 1 occurred after Wade stopped taking his medicine for his serious mental health issues as he thought he no longer needed them, and she concurred with judge Recorder Steven Everett’s description that Wade had suffered a “psychotic episode” after drinking alcohol while off his meds.
He was also employed in the energy sector as a team leader, had two young children and was “very remorseful”.
Ms Abukhalil said that in prison, Wade “is not going to receive the level of support he would in the community” to treat his mental health.
Recorder Everett called the case a “very difficult sentencing exercise”.
He considered the sentencing guidelines and credit for Wade’s five guilty pleas, and said it “would be wrong” to pass sentence on the basis Wade had stabbed his father as Mr James had not cooperated with the investigation, adding the punishment “may have been different had it not been for that”.
The judge sentenced Wade to 20 months in prison, suspended for two years, with up to 40 days on a rehabilitation activity requirement, 200 hours of unpaid work and an order to pay £1,500 in compensation to his nan.
The judge made a restraining order for five years to protect Mrs Wood and the Smiths.
Recorder Everett ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the knives as Mrs Wood did not want them back.
In his sentencing remarks, he told Wade: “Your behaviour was utterly disgraceful and truly terrifying and could so easily have resulted in really serious injury.
“We don’t know what injury your father had because he refused to cooperate with the prosecution, and it’s important you understand and everybody understands I’m not going to take that into account.”
He added: “I have to keep in mind this disgraceful incident was partly because you have mental health issues, which for many years you have been managing very well, and shortly before this incident which took place you lost your way in that regard.
“Like so many others who take medication for mental health issues you decided you were now well and didn’t have to take medication, but as Miss Abukhalil makes the point, the reason you were well was because you were taking medication, not because you’ve now recovered, and such medication is going to be with you for the rest of your life.
“And having done that you then drank.
“That was an additional trigger for your behaviour.”
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