Boy died as father showed him how to stab someone
Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 7:33 am
As I understand it, accidental death caused by another is manslaughter. Nonetheless, this is very tragic for the father left with the memory.
Boy died as father showed him how to stab someone
By Stewart Payne
(Filed: 07/07/2006)
A boy of 11 died after he was accidentally stabbed in the heart by his police officer father during a "play-fight", an inquest was told yesterday.
Ian Johnson, 40, was preparing swordfish steaks after drinking a bottle of wine when he started to mess about with his son Conor.
Mr Johnson said in a written statement to the inquest at Worthing, West Sussex, that his son had playfully started kicking his legs and pinching his bottom.
He grabbed his son, saying he would demonstrate how gladiators killed people by stabbing them in the neck.
In his statement he said he twisted the boy round and, as he did so, the knife, which had a four-inch blade, entered Conor's chest. "I said, 'Oh my God. Sorry Conor'. The cut was just above his right nipple. It was very small. I said, 'Don't worry.' "
"My first reaction was very selfish. I thought his mum is going to kill me when she sees this because it is going to need one or two stitches. Conor was worried and was panicking. I said, 'Look in my eyes.' I said, 'It will be all right.' I was a dad playing with his kid."
Mr Johnson, from Littlehampton, who is divorced from Conor's mother, called the emergency services and his son was taken to Worthing Hospital but died four hours later from the single stab wound to the heart.
Dr Phillipa Fabb, a junior anaesthetist, said she had asked Mr Johnson what had happened. She said he was describing to Conor some sort of tribal killing when the boy "slipped forward on to the knife".
Mr Johnson was arrested on suspicion of murder.
He told officers: "I want to put the record straight. We had been together all day and had a lovely day.
"We were just messing about. It was an accident. Why would I want to stab my son?"
The Crown Prosecution Service did not bring charges.
Because of his trauma, Mr Johnson, a Sussex police constable, was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
His ex-wife Sharon, 51, a nurse, described her son's relationship with his father as "excellent".
She said Mr Johnson had a passion for self-sufficiency and took Conor on camping trips to teach him how to live off the land and track animals.
She said he had a "great respect" for knives.
Martin Milward, the deputy coroner for West Sussex, said Mr Johnson's actions had been "extremely foolish".
The father had failed in his parental duty of care, he said. But Mr Milward accepted that what had happened was a tragic accident.
"I find there was a duty of care and there was a breach of that duty and that the breach caused the death," he said.
"The difficult problem is whether that error of judgment is of such magnitude that it can be described as criminal.
"While it is extremely foolish for any person to use a knife in such a manner and in such -circumstances, particularly when combined with the consumption of alcohol, I do not find the -negligence has crossed the line so as to be characterised as criminal.
"I am satisfied that accidental death is the correct verdict."
Boy died as father showed him how to stab someone
By Stewart Payne
(Filed: 07/07/2006)
A boy of 11 died after he was accidentally stabbed in the heart by his police officer father during a "play-fight", an inquest was told yesterday.
Ian Johnson, 40, was preparing swordfish steaks after drinking a bottle of wine when he started to mess about with his son Conor.
Mr Johnson said in a written statement to the inquest at Worthing, West Sussex, that his son had playfully started kicking his legs and pinching his bottom.
He grabbed his son, saying he would demonstrate how gladiators killed people by stabbing them in the neck.
In his statement he said he twisted the boy round and, as he did so, the knife, which had a four-inch blade, entered Conor's chest. "I said, 'Oh my God. Sorry Conor'. The cut was just above his right nipple. It was very small. I said, 'Don't worry.' "
"My first reaction was very selfish. I thought his mum is going to kill me when she sees this because it is going to need one or two stitches. Conor was worried and was panicking. I said, 'Look in my eyes.' I said, 'It will be all right.' I was a dad playing with his kid."
Mr Johnson, from Littlehampton, who is divorced from Conor's mother, called the emergency services and his son was taken to Worthing Hospital but died four hours later from the single stab wound to the heart.
Dr Phillipa Fabb, a junior anaesthetist, said she had asked Mr Johnson what had happened. She said he was describing to Conor some sort of tribal killing when the boy "slipped forward on to the knife".
Mr Johnson was arrested on suspicion of murder.
He told officers: "I want to put the record straight. We had been together all day and had a lovely day.
"We were just messing about. It was an accident. Why would I want to stab my son?"
The Crown Prosecution Service did not bring charges.
Because of his trauma, Mr Johnson, a Sussex police constable, was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
His ex-wife Sharon, 51, a nurse, described her son's relationship with his father as "excellent".
She said Mr Johnson had a passion for self-sufficiency and took Conor on camping trips to teach him how to live off the land and track animals.
She said he had a "great respect" for knives.
Martin Milward, the deputy coroner for West Sussex, said Mr Johnson's actions had been "extremely foolish".
The father had failed in his parental duty of care, he said. But Mr Milward accepted that what had happened was a tragic accident.
"I find there was a duty of care and there was a breach of that duty and that the breach caused the death," he said.
"The difficult problem is whether that error of judgment is of such magnitude that it can be described as criminal.
"While it is extremely foolish for any person to use a knife in such a manner and in such -circumstances, particularly when combined with the consumption of alcohol, I do not find the -negligence has crossed the line so as to be characterised as criminal.
"I am satisfied that accidental death is the correct verdict."
