A MAN is today starting a ten-year jail sentence for stabbing his father.

Eldon Gill, 82, has now said he wants nothing more to do with his son, Craig Hamilton Gill, 57, who stabbed him with a kitchen knife.

Mr Gill was admitted to intensive care at York Hospital after his son pierced his liver during a drunken attack at the family’s Poppleton home on April 5, York Crown Court heard.

Police officers described finding the son sitting with his arm round his father and an “eerie” smile on his face.

Mr Gill’s wife Hazel, 83, was also assaulted by her son and witnessed the stabbing. She now has to live in a care home away from her husband of 63 years.

Mr Gill told the police: “I don’t want to see or hear from Craig again, but I hope he gets the help he needs in prison.”

Mr Gill also said he misses his wife, though he visits her three times a week.

The Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, told the son: “What happened has had the most dramatic and traumatic effect upon the entire family. This is a genuine tragedy for all concerned.

“The principal person responsible for creating this tragedy was your dreadful decision to take a knife to your own father and stab him in the chest.

“It is a sad state of affairs when a man in poor health in his declining years wants nothing more to do with his son.”

The son, a graphic designer, 57, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to wounding his father with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm.

Gerald Hendron, prosecuting, said the father, a retired printer, had had health problems for ten years, the mother had Parkinson’s disease, and both were cared for by Craig, who lived with them. He regularly returned home drunk and argued with his father.

On April 5, he was thrown out of the White Horse pub, Poppleton, having been drinking, and returned home. His father told him off for “wasting his life with alcohol”. His mother tried to keep the peace and the son pushed her on to a sofa.

The father had told the son not to treat his mother in that way to which Craig Gill replied: “You, I hate you, I have always hated you”.

Mr Hendron said Gill grabbed his father, struck him on the neck and head, and stabbed him with the kitchen knife which went 10cm into his chest, between his ribs into the liver, and caused life-threatening internal bleeding.

Pathologist Peter Cooper told police the wound “required a good firm stabbing motion rather than a gentle poke.”

The father was rushed by ambulance to intensive care at York Hospital. He was discharged on April 24 to a respite care home, but was readmitted to intensive care on May 15 with breathing problems. He finally went home on June 10.

For Craig Gill, Robin Myers said he wanted to apologise for what he had done. “He recognises the pain, both physical and emotional he will have caused through this.”

Craig Gill’s brothers and sisters spoke well of the care he had given their parents for several years after voluntarily giving up his job, said Mr Myers.

He suffered from depression and had a “constrained” lifestyle centred on the family home.

The son had no memory of the stabbing, but had always accepted he had done it and by his guilty plea on the day of his trial had spared his father the ordeal of giving evidence.

The stabbing had been a momentary, spontaneous and out of character incident, said Mr Myers.