'You're 50 but haven't grown up', judge tells father after drunken attacks at home

After a row with his wife, a Coventry father punched his own daughter in a drunken attack on her partner who he then followed out into the street with a knife



But James McCarren escaped being jailed after a judge at Warwick Crown Court heard that his wife, his daughter and her boyfriend were all in the public gallery to support him.

McCarren (50) of Shilton Lane, Coventry, had pleaded guilty to possessing a bladed article in public and two charges of assault by beating.

He was sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended for two years and ordered to take part in a rehabilitation activity and to pay £200 costs.

Sentencing McCarren, Judge Berlin told him: “You are 50 years of age, and it seems to me you have not grown up.

“You get drunk, go back home and you argue with your daughter, your wife and your daughter’s boyfriend, and you attack and punch him. You also strike out and hit your daughter twice.

“You then are locked out of the house and cause mayhem outside, and to try to prevent further mayhem you’re allowed back in – but it does not prevent further mayhem, and you chase Kyle Simm outside with a knife.

“People who are brandishing knives in the street habitually go to prison for lengthy periods. The courts have to take these matters extremely seriously for public safety.

“But the mitigating points are one, you pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity; two, you have serious health problems which include a brain tumour; and three, you have a supportive family. I am going to take an exceptional course, but you don’t deserve it really.”

... you don’t deserve it really....

Then why take that course of action m'Lud?