Girl fights for life after father stabbed to death

The 13-year-old, named locally as Ayesha Jackson, was critically injured as her father Robert Jackson, 41, was stabbed at his home in Moston, north Manchester, at around 10.20pm on Sunday night.

The 34-year-old man who is understood to have launched the knife attack, named locally as Darren Gasper, also died of stab injuries after hijacking a car and driving it into the side of a pub at about 1am yesterday in nearby Harpurhey.

Mr Jackson, a former carpet fitter and DJ who is said to have known Bez from the Happy Mondays, has been described as a popular and quiet man on the housing estate where he had lived for more than 20 years.

According to locals his daughter, his only child, who was only visiting the Delta Walk address and lives elsewhere with her mother, may have been injured trying to protect her father.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) detectives are not understood to be looking for anybody else in connection with the attacks.

Mr Jackson was found dead by officers at his home and his daughter was taken to hospital, where she is in a critical condition with stab wounds.

Police were alerted at about 1am after a man had threatened a
car owner with a knife and stolen the vehicle in Watfield Walk
in Harpurhey, about half a mile from the scene of the original attack.

A short time later the vehicle was seen near Rochdale Road by police and when officers approached, the suspect drove the car into the side of the Alliance pub.

The driver was taken to hospital suffering from a stab wound and injuries consistent with a collision but died a short time later. No one else was injured in the smash.

Gasper, the father of a boy aged five or six, was well known to police, locals said.