Teenager’s lies put his father in custody

When police attended at the Huddersfield home of Mehrdad Shahijan, 19, he was gasping for air and claiming he could not breathe.

He told police his father had pulled a knife on his mother and had tried to strangle him with a piece of electric cable, Bradford Crown Court heard.

The teenager’s father, Ali Mohammed Kadkhodaei-Shahijan, was taken into custody and charged with affray, wounding, perverting justice and attempted murder. He spent more than two months in custody.

Following his father’s remand in custody, the teenager told officers that he had made everything up because he was angry.

He later went on to admit that there had been a scuffle in the father’s bedroom and he became aware that his father had called the police.

He claimed that he wanted to get his father into trouble, and added he had tried to wrap electric cable round his own neck and pull it tight.

The Huddersfield New College student, of Springbank Road, Bradley Mills, admitted perverting the course of justice and yesterday Judge Roger Grant said he was taking an exceptional course in passing a suspended custodial sentence.

Judge Grant read a letter from Shahijan’s father and noted that he had been worried about his son’s mental state at the time of the incident. The judge also took account of the fact that the father and son were now reconciled and Shahijan’s parents had come to court to support him.

Judge Grant sentenced the teenager to 12 months in custody, suspended for 18 months, with a condition that he is subject to supervision also for 18 months.

Shahijan will also have to do 120 hours of unpaid work for the community.