Inverness man jailed for attacking father
An Inverness man, who attacked his father with a knife because he suspected him of killing his mother, has been jailed for 12 months.
An Inverness man, who attacked his father with a knife because he suspected him of killing his mother, has been jailed for 12 months. A social work report on 22-year-old Christopher Thomson assessed him as "still a risk to his father" and Sheriff Margaret Neilson said she had no option but to send him to prison. Sentence had been deferred on Thomson several times for various reports to be prepared in a bid by defence lawyer Shahid Latif to keep him out of custody. But Mr Latif told the court his client had told him he had reached the end of the road. "Whilst he appreciates the efforts to keep him out of jail, he feels we are at the end of the road and in a cul de sac - back where we started. "The social workers say he cannot be rehabilitated and still poses a risk to his father. But there had been no prior incident like this and none since. "Imprisonment will not deal with the underlying issues he suffers from. He grew up with the spectre of the disappearance of his mother at a very young age. "He was also subjected to a whispering campaign by other members of his family about the circumstances of his mother's disappearance. "He was destined to chase a rainbow he was never going to reach. "He has since broken off all contact with his father." At an earlier hearing, the court was told Thomson's hairdresser mother, Heather was 27 when she was last seen leaving her home in Inverness on January 19, 1994.
She has not been seen since and police still treat her disappearance as a missing person.
But Thomson believed his natural father, Gerard Salvadori had something to do with what happened to his mum.
Salvadori, now aged 63, was a diagnosed schizophrenic and spent a period in Carstairs State Mental Hospital after admitting threatening to petrol bomb an Inverness chemist if staff didn’t give him drugs 20 years ago.
Inverness High Court was told in September 1994 his motive was to commit suicide with the drugs.
Although he had only seen Mr Salvadori three times in his life and never knew his mother due to his age, Thomson visited his dad's Conon Bridge home in February, 2013 after making the bus journey from Inverness by bus.
Fiscal depute Roderick Urquhart told the court: “His mother, Heather Thomson, went missing in 1994 and no trace of her was ever found.
“He blames his father for his mother's disappearance or at least believes he knows something of it. "Mr Salvadori was sitting in the living room of his house when Thomson knocked at his door and was let in.
“Almost immediately he started to talk about his mother, implying that Salvadori knew something about the disappearance. "His father responded by asking, “What?” Thomson then punched his father twice to the left hand side of his face, before going into the kitchen.
“He came out holding a knife, walked up to his father and struck him a couple of times on the head with the bottom of the handle of the knife, before putting the knife down.
Thomson had admitted assaulting his father to his injury by repeatedly punching him on the face, detaining him against his will and striking him on the head with the handle of a knife.