Bail refused to man accused of trying to murder his dad (74)

A CO Antrim man beat his elderly father unconscious and declared that he had wanted to “do him in” for years, the High Court has heard.

Prosecutors claimed Paul Coulter inflicted repeated blows to the 74-year-old victim’s head in a bid to kill him, leaving him hospitalised for five days.

At one point Coulter’s mother tried to lie on top of her husband to protect him, a judge was told.

The 43-year-old defendant denies a charge of attempted murder, claiming two intruders carried out the assault at the family home in Ardtole Park, Newtownabbey, on August 21.

Bail was refused amid allegations that he has been controlling and aggressive towards his parents.

Citing the risk of further offences, Lord Justice Stephens said: “There’s a prima facie case of an, as yet, unexplained, vicious and sustained assault by the applicant on his father.”

Crown lawyer David McClean said police called to the scene found the accused’s father in a blood-splattered living room. He had sustained several lacerations to his head and face, while both eyes are badly swollen.

The pensioner was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital where he received 24 stitches.

Despite a limited recollection, the court heard he believed his son had knocked him unconscious with a bottle. His wife alleges she witnessed their son punch him repeatedly about the head, leave the room and then return to resume the assault.

“She stated that the applicant attacked her husband, saying: ‘I’m doing him in, I have wanted to do this for years’,” Mr McClean told the judge.

She was said to have run to a neighbour’s house to raise the alarm. When police arrived Coulter was in a change of clothing and the washing machine was running, according to the prosecution. It was stopped and bloodstained garments retrieved.

The accused also faces charges of criminal damage and common assault on his mother.

Defence counsel David Heraghty said his client denies the offences, providing an alternative account of what happened.

“He alleges that two people came to the address, carried out the attack on his father, and that he encountered these persons on the way out,” the barrister said.

Two sets of footprints found in the back garden back up this version of events, it was contended.