HEARTLESS
I wanted my dad to be a hero. Now I’m ashamed
taking graphic pictures of victims on his own phone. Even when he was charged with the thefts he carried on the charade of innocence with son Brandon.
When Brandon contacted him on Facebook in November, Parker insisted he would walk free.
He told him: “Paid for a top barrister anyway. Not done anything wrong anyway CCTV shows me doing nothing wrong so it will get thrown out of court.”
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When Brandon asked his dad if he will go to jail Parker promises: “No i’ve done two months in Strangeways plus it will be three month on tag so i’ ve virtually done my sentence already.”
The court heard Parker has an extensive criminal record dating back to 2000 that includes shoplifting, criminal damage, battery, and theft.
Michelle – who dumped Parker after a history of “emotional abuse” – says the scandal has had a profound effect on their son. She said: “He doesn’t say much about it, but I know it’s painful for him. He told a few close friends Chris was a hero.
“It’s just as well he didn’t tell the whole school. He’s been very quiet about the whole thing but he’s hurting.
“The sad thing is Chris probably went to help but he can’t deny his true nature.
“He’s a violent idiot who walked past his own son in the street.”
Michelle claimed Chris was a womaniser who cheated constantly, held wild parties in their flat and told her nobody else would look twice at her.
They couple met when Michelle, of Darwen, Lancs, was 16. Parker was in a homeless unit. She said: “I knew he was the bad boy type. I was an idiot falling for him.”
She says Chris was “over the moon” when she got pregnant with Brandon but CHRIS Parker’s son Brandon has spoken of his devastation over his dad’s confession that he stole from victims of the Ariana Grande bombing.
Brandon, 15, told how he had been full of pride when his absent father – who abandoned him five years ago – was hailed a hero after the terror blast that killed 22.
He said: “When I read in the paper that he’d saved people in the attack, I was proud of him again.
“I was sad that he was homeless – but I thought he was a real hero. I should have claims he has “never paid a penny” in maintenance and has given his son no birthday or Christmas gifts in five years.
Michelle said: “He’s done nothing for him. We split up when Brandon was about 18 months old because he was cheating on me all the time. He used to boast about it.
“We once went for a night out in the local club and I caught him snogging somebody behind the DJ’s box.
“I was devastated. Another time my sister Joanne had a row with him because she stuck up for me. He held her head down in the snow out in the garden.
“He’s a waster. He refused to pay anything towards Brandon’s upbringing and he was never around to pay maintenance when he was older.”
It is clear that Brandon still finds his known that it was too good to be true.”
Brandon was left heartbroken after Parker, 33, pleaded guilty to stealing a purse from injured Pauline Healey, whose 14-year-old granddaughter died, and taking a girl’s mobile.
Brandon said: “I only ever wanted for him to be a dad to me. We used to be close.
“But he suddenly turned his back on me.
“I’d see him in the street and he would just ignore me.
“I thought he was a hero – I wanted him to be that man, I really did. Now I’m ashamed.” abandonment by his father painful. He said: “We were really close when I was younger and I used to go around his house almost every weekend and we’d sit for hours on the PlayStation together.
“But then he got into a relationship with someone else and asked me to come around less and less.
“Contact just stopped altogether when I was about 10. I’d see Dad in the street and shout him, but he’d just ignore me.
“I can’t believe he told all those lies about the bombing? Why did he do it?”
While Brandon says he wants nothing more to do with his father, his gran Suzanne said: “He loves Chris because, at the end of the day, it’s his dad.
“But he’s told us he doesn’t want to grow up anything like him. Brandon puts on a show like he doesn’t care – but I know he does.
“What Chris did makes him a scumbag, the very lowest of the low. What kind of a father can walk among dying children and steal from people?”