GRIEVING SON’S STAB ATTACK
Man jailed for beating girlfriend unconscious then knifing her brother hours after dad’s funeral
A grieving son who beat his girlfriend unconscious and stabbed her brother just hours after his father’s funeral has been jailed for nine years.
Karl Gough lashed out when he got back to his victims’ home and realised there was a “party” going on while he was mourning.
Newcastle Crown Court heard the 24-year-old picked up a serrated carving knife from the kitchen when the row, which started inside the house in Hendon, Sunderland, spilled outside.
His girlfriend Elizabeth Harrison, 22, suffered a cut to her hand when she tried to disarm him, before he punched and kicked her unconscious.
Gough then plunged the knife into her brother Alfie Harrison, 31.
The court heard the blade went through Mr Harrison’s abdominal wall, lacerated his liver and badly damaged his gall bladder, which had to be removed.
Mr Harrison “thought he was going to die” as a result of the injury.
Gough left the scene after the stabbing, but was arrested at a nearby house with “blood on his hands, face and neck area”.
The court heard when Miss Harrison regained consciousness she saw her injured brother on the ground.
He said in an impact statement he can no longer enjoy his boxing or motor cycling hobbies as a result of his injuries and has left the area.
Miss Harrison said in her statement: “Our relationship is over. I never want to see him again.”
The court heard Miss Harrison had been in a relationship with Gough for about a year and had she had attended his father’s funeral with him on July 21.
The court heard trouble started when they got back to Miss Harrison’s home, where her brother lived parttime, in the early hours of the next morning and there was a “party” going on.
Vic Laffey, defending, said: “Short of the day when this man’s father actually died, this is the most disastrous day of this man’s life.”
Gough, of no fixed address, admitted wounding with intent, assault and having an offensive weapon.
Mr Recorder Simon Kealey QC sentenced him to nine years with a lifelong restraining order to keep him away from the victims.