A man who attempted to murder his elderly wheelchair-bound mother in a drunken attack on New Year’s Day has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

During the attack, Bruce Davis (53) attempted to strangle Thomasina McAskill, known as Chrissy, with her own sweater in her own home.

After surviving the attack, the 78-year-old said: “I thought he was going to kill me. He seemed determined to do it.”

• Inverness man deliberately ‘put life’ of mother ‘at risk’, Police Scotland say

A judge told Davis at the High Court in Edinburgh: “Your mother was an elderly woman in a wheelchair. You inflicted serious injury on her.”

Lord Summers said: “In passing sentence I am obliged to take into account that the victim of this attack was your own mother. »

The judge pointed out that at the time of the murder bid, on January 1 last year, David was living with the victim at her home in Inverness.

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Davis had previously denied attempted murder but was found guilty of the offense following a trial at the High Court in Inverness.

During the attack, the victim, who has since died, was repeatedly kicked on the body by her son, who grabbed her hair and restricted her breathing. He also threw furniture at her.

After Ms. McAskill’s death, statements made following the murder bid were used as evidence at Davis’ trial. In one, she said: “I thought he was trying to strangle me. I was terrified.”

Police were called by concerned neighbors to his home in Smithton Villas, Inverness, and two officers saw Davis through a window of the house with an arm around his mother’s neck.

He still had blood on his hands when he went to let them in and his mother told them “he hit me” and pointed to her son.

Davis shouted, “Someone called the police because they think I assaulted you.” » His mother replied: “And rightly so because it is.”

A paramedic called to the scene said the victim told him “her son lost it and attacked her.”

In a statement given to police at the hospital after the murder bid, she said her son was drinking vodka before he got up, threw her to the ground and started kicking and beating her. hit her with a broken table leg.

She said: “He has never attacked me before. I couldn’t get away from him. I don’t want him near me anymore. I’m afraid of him.”

Davis claimed he bumped into his mother and said, “I would never intentionally hurt my mother.”

The victim was bleeding and bruised after the attack and had fractures to his jaw, leg and ribs.

Defense barrister Graeme Brown said Davis had raised four children but when they started to leave he felt redundant. His situation worsened with the onset of the Covid pandemic.

Mr Brown said: ‘He was drinking up to a bottle of vodka a day and it became his life at that point.’

He added: “I hope he will be in a better position when he is finally released.”

Mr Brown told the court that a custodial sentence given to Davis when he was a teenager was considered a conviction for attempted murder, but Davis believed it was a mistake, even though it was ‘an attack.

Davis followed the sentencing proceedings via video link to the prison and was informed his prison sentence would be backdated to January last year, when he was first detained.

View our court reporting fact sheet here