Dad ‘like madman’ before he shot son in row over takeaway payment
ADAD shot and stabbed his own son, before turning the gun on himself, following a domestic dispute over who was going to pay for a takeaway.
Kitchen fitter Darren Moses had argued with his partner Lynette Lamb over the payment early in the evening on October 21, which she and his son Ashton “laughed off”, before going to the the Lamb pub in Hirwaun.
But later, after the family had returned to their home in Station Close in the village, his mood changed, Swansea Crown Court heard yesterday. Prosecuting, James Wilson said
when Ms Lamb had gone to bed, Moses decided to sleep downstairs, having become agitated.
Ms Lamb said she could hear his Stanley knife “rattling in his pocket” as he started hurling obscenities at her.
Moses was described as “looking like a madman” as he walked towards his partner, prompting Ashton to get between the pair, telling his father: “Leave mammy alone, she can’t live like this.”
Moses went to the living room to get a rifle, while Ashton pleaded with his father to put the gun down.
But the gun was fired, wounding Ashton’s abdomen. Ashton ran from the house, but not before his father had slashed him by the neck and shot at him again.
A neighbour alerted by the gunshot saw Moses pursue his son.
Mr Wilson said the witness had claimed: “The defendant raised the gun to a firing position towards Ashton.
“When it fired it hit Ashton, and his arm flung up and he put his left hand over his right arm.”
Ashton ran to a neighbour’s house, asking them to call an ambulance.
Moses had then returned to the family home and put the gun under his chin, before he went to another neighbour’s house with blood dripping from his chin.
Ashton was taken to Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil. He was treated for bullet injuries in the right side of his abdomen, and his elbow, and knife wounds to the nape of his neck and right shoulder.
Police found Moses at the neighbour’s home, where he told them: “My son hit me in the head so I shot him and I shot myself.”
He had originally faced an attempted murder charge, but Mr Wilson told the court “it was decided to charge him on the evidence as it stood.” Moses pleaded guilty to a charge of wounding with intent to cause GBH.
Moses had two previous offences – for driving with excess alcohol and failing to provide a breath specimen.
Andrew Taylor, for the defence, said both Lynette Lamb and Ashton Moses stood by Darren Moses.
Mr Taylor described Moses as a kitchen fitter “of some repute in the valleys”.
He added: “It was close on miraculous the injuries to Ashton were relatively minor bearing in mind the capability of the weapon used.”
Moses and Ms Lamb had been together for 24 years, the court was told, and both she and Ashton “come to the court today in support of the defendant and that is in my experience unusual”.
Sentencing, Judge Paul Thomas said the incident had begun from a “mundane domestic tiff over who was to pay for a takeaway”.
He added: “It must have been a terrifying incident for Ashton and his mother, other families and other witnesses and neighbours.”
Judge Thomas described Ashton’s forgiveness of this father as “a tribute to him and the forgiving nature of human beings”, and noted that neither his son or partner wanted a restraining order.
“It is clearly wholly out of character and no real explanation why you reacted with such extreme violence.”
Moses, who was described by Ms Lamb in court as “a good man”, was jailed for seven years.