Dad stabs son to death for buying wrong takeaway
A PENSIONER who killed his son when he brought home the wrong kind of takeaway was jailed for five years yesterday.
Ossie James, 74, plunged an eight-and-a-half inch kitchen knife into Joseph James’ heart after they rowed about the food.
Jailing James for manslaughter, Judge Richard Hawkins told him: “I can show an element of mercy in view of your age.”
The Old Bailey had heard how James senior, who walks with a stick, lost control at his home in Brockley, south London, in February when his son brought home a chicken and chips take- away instead of a Chinese.
His wife Marjorie, who refused to testify against him, found their 44-year-old son lying in a pool of blood and dialled 999.
Paramedics arrived to find Joseph in the hallway while his father, who denied murder sat calmly in the living room. When police tried to arrest him he resisted and was handcuffed.
Joseph, from nearby Deptford, was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital. The knife had left a five-inch wound, puncturing his left ventricle and slicing part of his rib bone. The court also heard the knife may have become twisted.
Judge Hawkins said: “Joseph returned with a takeaway and you were not happy with what was brought back and its condition. An argument followed with your son. He offended against your sensibilities about what was duty or your position as a father.
“He may well have offered some violence towards you. You took a kitchen knife and unlawfully stabbed him in the heart. It was a trivial incident.”
Prosecutor Neil Moore said: “There were only three people in the house at the time the stab wound was inflicted – the deceased, the defendant and the defendant’s wife Marjorie. When the police arrived they found him sitting in a chair in the living room while his son was being treated in the hallway”.
The pensioner appeared unsteady on his feet as he was led to the cells yesterday. He had told a psychiatrist that he had been provoked to attack his son after Joseph got his takeaway order wrong. He told officers at Lewisham police station: “He came at me like a raging bull and pushed me down on the kitchen floor and hit me on the head with something. I did not murder him.”
Later he claimed: “He ran towards the cupboard and collapsed on the floor.” Detective Inspector Bob Meade, who led the investigation, said the killing was “one of the worst crimes imaginable”.
Speaking after the verdict, he added: “The killing of a son by his natural father is difficult to comprehend. This case is worse as it occurred for the most trivial of reasons. He killed his son and destroyed what remains of his own life. He now has to live with what he has done.”
