Last updated at 14:26, Friday, 25 February 2011

A MAN has been jailed after slashing his son's boyfriend's throat.

ALAN CULLEY

A MAN who slit his gay son’s boyfriend’s throat has been jailed for six years.

Barrow DJ Alan James Culley was visiting his son Alan David Culley and his partner Richard Conaghan when a row broke out.

Culley Snr, who was drunk, then slashed Mr Conaghan’s throat and face twice and stabbed his son’s hand when he tried to intervene.

Recalling the ordeal, son Mr Culley told the Evening Mail: “He lunged at Richard, slit his face down one side then lunged again and slit his throat.

“I stuck my hand out to try and stop him and he stabbed my hand; but if I hadn’t done that, Richard wouldn’t be alive. The doctors said it was a matter of millimetres away from his jugular and if the knife had gone through that, he would have been a goner.”

The six-year sentence given to Culley Snr was welcomed by his son.

The 39-year-old, who was born and grew up in Barrow, said: “My dad and mum, who live on Walney, were visiting us at my place in Ardwick in Manchester. Dad had been to the pub round the corner for a drink and when he came back for tea he was drunk.

“Richard, my partner at the time, asked him to be quiet and dad just lunged at him and started punching him. Dad went upstairs and I asked him to leave.”

Mr Culley thought that would be the end of the incident until he saw his father coming back down the stairs with a knife.

He said: “He was screaming and saying ‘I’m going to slit your throat’, we had no idea it was going to escalate like it did.”

Mr Culley said he has since had to learn how to write with his other hand and is awaiting a further operation to remove a damaged tendon from his arm.

Mr Conaghan was off work for four weeks and still suffers from panic attacks.

Mr Culley, a former Parkview School pupil, said: “The most evil thing about all this is that dad made us all go through it all over again. He denied the whole thing and I’ll never be able to forgive him.

“Standing up in court in front of him and giving evidence was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.”

Culley Snr, 63, of Kennet Road, Walney, who is known in Barrow as the DJ behind AJ’s Karaoke, had denied two counts of wounding with intent on September 3, 2009, but was found guilty following a trial at Manchester Crown Court.

On Monday he was sentenced to six years in prison for the first charge and a further four years, to run concurrently, for the second charge.

First published at 14:01, Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk