Alcoholic spared prison for strangling father, 86

Ralph Stephenson's attack on his father Ralph Stephenson Snr was so violent that he broke 10 of the elderly man's ribs.

Yesterday at Sheffield Crown Court, a judge imposed a three-year community order on the defendant.

Stephenson, 46, told police he killed the 86-year-old because he was at the "end of his tether watching his father come to an end".

A hearing in March at Newcastle Crown Court also heard that Stephenson begged doctors at the University Hospital of North Durham to give his father an injection to "put his life at an end".

The court found Stephenson was mentally ill at the time.

This earlier hearing heard that the Royal Mail worker had never given police a satisfactory explanation for how his father suffered his fatal injuries on the night of June 11, last year.

Mr Stephenson, who suffered from Parkinson's disease and dementia, had been admitted to the hospital on May 21 from a nursing home with a chest infection and although he was not in any immediate danger, "it was clear to everybody that his time was not going to be that long, although he was not in any immediate danger".

By June 10, medical staff did not think Mr Stephenson would live much longer, so the defendant, his only child, was called to his bedside.

When Mr Stephenson died the following night medical staff raised concerns about marks on the pensioner's body and alerted the authorities.

A pathologist discovered that Mr Stephenson had suffered 10 separate rib fractures.

When Stephenson, an alcoholic, was arrested he admitted to detectives he had grabbed his comatose father by the shoulders and shaken him.

He said he squeezed his father's throat for some 30 seconds and suggested that his father should be put out of his misery.

The earlier hearing heard the father and son had a "caring and affectionate" relationship and that he had been under a great deal of stress.

He felt guilty for putting his father into a nursing home after being no longer able to cope with caring for him and his mother.

At that hearing Robert Woodcock QC defending, said: "However horrific this case may have appeared there was nothing in the outcome that was by any degree motivated in a single ounce of malice."

Stephenson, of Tyne Road East, Stanley, County Durham, admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at a previous hearing.

Yesterday, after a brief hearing, the judge, Mr Justice Openshaw, imposed a three-year community order with a number of conditions.

He said Stephenson would be supervised for three years and this supervision would involve registering with a mental health team.

The judge also said the defendant was barred from visiting his elderly mother at times when she was being dealt with by social services.

Stephenson sat in the court for the 15 minute hearing wearing a dark suit and an open-neck white shirt. He was flanked by three security guards.