Jealous dad stabbed ex-wife’s new partner
HIS SON JOINED IN THE ATTACK, HITTING THE VICTIM ON THE HEAD WITH A HAMMER
A JEALOUS dad stabbed his estranged wife’s new partner in front of her – while his son repeatedly hit him on the head with a hammer.
The couple were about to catch a bus in Salford when Craig Shortman, the woman’s husband, and Dillon Gillott, her 21-year-old son, attacked her partner in the street.
Shortman, 43, stabbed the man, while Gillott repeatedly hit him on the head with a hammer.
“Craig Shortman was jealous of the new man in her life,” prosecutor Bob Elias told Manchester Crown Court.
Gillott claimed he was acting to protect his mother after, as the court was told, allegations of domestic abuse had been made against her new partner. A text sent to her from Shortman’s phone the day before the attack read: “Tell me who the only man in your life is.”
Now Shortman and Gillott, both from Little Hulton, have been jailed.
Before sending them down, Judge Suzanne Goddard QC told them: “You are father and son. It is a great tragedy you both appear in the dock together in relation to such serious allegations.
“You are both very lucky indeed that he did not sustain fatal injuries.”
The court heard Shortman had been separated from his wife for ‘some years’, but they had not divorced. She had started a relationship with another man in the months prior to the attack, in October last year.
The couple were together and were on their way to catch a bus at about 4pm on October 21 when Shortman and Gillott arrived in a red Peugeot. Without saying anything, the pair began attacking the man - Shortman with a knife and Gillott with a hammer. Gillott hit him several times in the head and knee caps with the lump hammer.
Shortman stabbed him in his thigh and bottom. After the attack, the pair got back in the car and left.
An air ambulance was called, but the victim was taken to Manchester Royal Infirmary by road.
Both father and son were arrested the following day.
They claimed to have been at home together when the attack happened.
Shortman denies it was him who sent the text the day before.
His barrister David Bentley said Shortman has had ‘entrenched difficulties’ with ‘drug misuse’, but at the time had been on a home detoxification programme.
Defending Gillott, Paul Treble said: “Experience tells us that love
can cause people to act in misguided ways, and that is the case here.”
Mr Treble said that allegations had been made to the police about domestic abuse allegedly suffered by Gillott’s mother.
Shortman, of Maunby Gardens, Little Hulton, and Gillott, of Grassland Rise, Little Hulton, both pleaded guilty to section 20 wounding.
Shortman was jailed for four years and eight months, while Gillott was locked up for four years.
You are both very lucky he did not sustain fatal injuries Judge Suzanne Goddard