Inverness son accused of trying to murder parent says: ‘I‘d never intentionally hurt my mother’
A 52-year-old man accused of attempting to murder his mother in a drunken rage claimed she sustained several fractures and was battered and bruised because he stumbled and fell on top of her.
Bruce Davis told a jury at the High Court in Inverness that his intoxicated effort to pull 78-year-old wheelchair-bound Thomasina McAskill, aka Chrissy, up to her feet by her jumper may have given the impression to police he was strangling her.
Davis also denied throwing furniture at the elderly woman and a coffee table had broken when he pushed it away to get to his stricken parent who was lying on the floor bloodied and bruised on New Year's Day last year.
• Inverness trial hears mother thought son was ‘hell bent’ on killing her
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The Saughton Prison remand prisoner gave evidence on his own behalf and was questioned by his defence counsel Graeme Brown.
Davis said that he was very intoxicated but his mother had fallen out of her wheelchair and let out a yell. He added that he got up from a sofa to go and help her but stumbled on to her.
"I was trying to help her," he went on.
Cross-examined by advocate depute Shahid Latif, Davis insisted: "I never hit my mother once. My mother was mixed up about what happened. She misconstrued me trying to help her. I would never intentionally hurt my mother."
A charge of threatening or abusive behaviour and damaging household furniture was dropped by Mr Latif and the jury will consider their verdict on tomorrow morning after hearing Lord Summers' instructions in law. Davis has denied attempted murder.
The trial had earlier been told that police had been called to Smithton Villas where the pensioner lived alone. She told police her son had gone to stay with her over the festive period and was due to leave on January 1.
But he drank a litre of vodka, and she said he got up and began punching and kicking her before hitting her with the leg of the broken coffee table.
Neighbours called 999 after they heard him shouting aggressively at Ms McAskill and officers saw him through the window with his arm round her neck and she appeared to have difficulty breathing. She pleaded with them to come into the house and when Davis let them in, the pensioner told the constables her son had hit her.
She later told police: "I thought he was going to kill me. He seemed hell bent on it. I was screaming for help. He has never assaulted me before. I don't want him near me again. I am terrified of him."
Ms McAskill died in April 2024 and as she couldn't give evidence, the judge allowed the police to tell the trial what was said to them by her at various times over the eight days that followed the alleged attack.
The court heard that she was treated in the intensive care unit of Raigmore Hospital in Inverness for extensive cuts and bruises all over her body, broken ribs, two fractures to her leg and a broken jaw.
The trial continues.
