A man who was convicted of sexually abusing his daughter attempted to commit suicide by slashing his throat with a razor blade in court.
The defendant, who cannot be named to protect his six-year-old victim, tried to kill himself after he was told that he was guilty of the offence.
After hearing two guilty verdicts of sexual assault, he repeatedly slashed his throat in front of the jury and judge.
The man was pulled to the ground by custody officers, while his ex-wife shouted from the public gallery, “Go on bastard, do it.”
He had snuck a razor blade into the court unbeknown to his guards. After being contained he was carried to a hospital where he was treated for ‘superficial’ neck injuries.
He has been charged to jail for five years for incestuous sexual abuse, that is to run with a consecutive separate seven-year sentence for unrelated burglaries, motoring and other offences.
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.
Richard Thatcher the Prosecutor, said that a victim impact report on the child, now being cared for by relatives, revealed the abuse had affected her school work.
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 razor blade under his watch while in prison and came here, to this court, with a razor blade.
“‘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.”