A judge showed mercy to a terminally ill man who stabbed his sister's husband.
Michael Nixon, 43, from Hemlington, is in the late stages of Huntington’s Disease which was said to affect his thinking.
His lawyer told Teesside Crown Court today that it was an appalling disease, and he had no explanation for the stabbing.
Prosecutor Shaun Dryden said that Nixon went to his sister’s home in Hemlington at 7.30AM on August 12 last year armed with a small kitchen knife.
He went into a bedroom where his brother-in-law was asleep, and the man woke to find him standing over him with the knife in his right hand.
Nixon drove the knife down towards the centre of his chest, and the man grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the bedroom with the help of other members of the family, and put him outside.
It was only then that he realised he had been stabbed in the chest with a 1 centimetre cut through a T-shirt he was wearing. He did not receive any form of medical treatment.
Nixon was arrested two hours later, and initially he described his conduct as a moment of madness in going to the house and into the bedroom.
Mr Dryden added: “He said that he had taken the knife simply to frighten him.
“It appears that there had been a dispute regarding his mother’s will after she died two years before.”
Nixon had no previous convictions for violence. The judge granted an application for a five year restraining order banning him from contacting the family or going near their home.
Nigel Soppitt, defending, said: “It’s a strange matter and he can offer no explanation.
“It’s the sort of case for a suspended sentence upon him. It was an isolated case in August last year.
“He has an illness which distorts his thinking. It’s an appalling illness that he has, and he could be supported by those around him. He is assisted by the community health team.”
The Recorder of Middlesbrough Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC told Nixon: “You are suffering from Huntington’s Disease, which is a terminal illness, you know that, and you were clearly at an advanced stage of that illness.
“For whatever reason you went to your sister’s home and attacked her partner, but fortunately the injury was not serious.
“It’s certainly not in the interest of the community for you to receive a sentence of immediate custody.”
Nixon, of Phoenix Park, Hemlington, was given a nine months jail sentence suspended for 18 months after he admitted unlawful wounding and possession of an offensive weapon.
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