A man who tried to murder his elderly, wheelchair-bound mother in a drink-fuelled attack on New Year’s Day was jailed for 10 years today.
During the assault, Bruce Davis, 53, tried to strangle Thomasina McAskill, known as Chrissy, with her jumper in her own home.
After surviving the attack the 78-year-old said: “I thought he was going to kill me. He seemed hell-bent on it.”
A judge told Davis at the High Court in Edinburgh: “Your mother was an elderly woman who was wheelchair-bound. You inflicted serious injury on her.”
Lord Summers said: “In passing sentence I am compelled to take account of the fact the victim of this assault was your own mother.”
The judge pointed out that at the time of the murder bid on January 1 last year Davis was living with the victim at her home in Inverness.
Davis had earlier denied the attempted murder but was convicted of the offence following a trial at the High Court in Inverness.
During the assault the victim, who has since died, was repeatedly kicked on the body by her son, who seized her hair and put his arms around her throat, restricting her breathing.
He also threw furniture at her, pulled her jumper over her head and put it around her throat and strangled her.
Following Ms McAskill’s death statements made in the wake of the murder bid were used in evidence at Davis’ trial.
In one she said: “I believed he was trying to strangle me. I was terrified.”
‘I am terrified of him’
Police were called by concerned neighbours to her home at Smithton Villas, Inverness, and two officers saw Davis through a window of the house with an arm around his mother’s neck.
He still had blood on his hands when he went to let them in and his mother told them “he hit me” and pointed to her son.
Davis shouted: “Somebody has phoned the police because they think I have assaulted you.” His mother responded: “And rightly so because you have.”
A paramedic who was called to the scene said the victim told her “her son had lost it and assaulted her”.
In a statement given to police in hospital following the murder bid she said her son was drinking vodka before he stood up, threw her to the floor and started kicking her and hitting her with a broken table leg.
She said: “He has never assaulted me before. I couldn’t get away from him. I don’t want him near me again. I am terrified of him.”
Davis claimed that he fell on top of his mother and said: “I would never intentionally hurt my mother.”
‘He was drinking up to a bottle of vodka a day’
The victim was left bleeding and bruised after the attack and sustained fractures to her jaw, leg and ribs.
Defence solicitor advocate Graeme Brown said David raised four children but when they began to leave he felt redundant. His position worsened with the outbreak of the Covid pandemic.
Mr Brown said: “He was drinking up to a bottle of vodka a day and that became his life at that stage.”
He added: “Hopefully, he will be in a better position when he is eventually released.”
Mr Brown told the court that a sentence of detention imposed on Davis as a teenager was listed as a conviction for attempted murder, but Davis believed that was wrong although it was for an assault.
Davis followed the sentencing proceedings via a video link to prison and was told that his jail term would be backdated to January last year when he was first taken into custody.