Huntingdon man threatened to put father “six feet under”

A MAN who threatened to kill his father in a late-night fit of drunken rage will face sentencing at the Crown Court.

Dean Marshall, 28, grabbed his father John round the neck and told him he wanted to put him “six feet under” after returning from a night of heavy drinking in Cambridge.

He pleaded guilty at Huntingdon Magistrates’ Court on February 23 to making threats to kill his father on February 22, common assault and breaching a conditional discharge dating from December 20 of last year.

Police officers had brought Marshall back to the house he shared with his parents in Park Gate, Stukeley Meadows, after he had drunkenly fallen asleep in the garden of his estranged partner.

Marshall arrived at his parents’ house at about 4am and began shouting and swearing when his mother would not let him use the phone to call his partner.

Prosecutor Sylvia Cundell said Marshall, still searching for a phone, entered his father’s bedroom and “grabbed him by the throat and made threats to kill him”.

“The grip around his throat was so tight he could not breathe. He was gurgling, and struck out at his son,” said Mrs Cundell.

Marshall moved downstairs to the kitchen, where his father followed him. Marshall told him: “I am going to smash every bone in your face so the blood runs through my fingers.”

He then pushed Mr Marshall over in a struggle, causing him minor injuries.

Magistrates at Huntingdon judged their powers to be insufficient for the severity of the crime, and committed the case to the Crown Court at a date to be arranged.

Kevin Warboys, mitigating, said that Marshall had hoped to stay at his estranged partner’s house because he had not been on good terms with his parents at the time, and that the argument had been sparked by Marshall’s urge to call his partner.

“There is no doubt that with the best of intentions, [the police] taking him home was the very situation he had been trying to avoid.”

“He accepts he briefly grabbed his father by the throat, but very little in the way of physical injury resulted,” added Mr Warboys.

He added that Marshall had “great regret” that his children had been in the house at the time, and that he had spent time comforting them before he left.

Marshall was released on bail to a friend’s address in Deal Close, Huntingdon.