Father and son jailed for ten years each over sledgehammer attack

A father and son have been jailed for a total of 20 years after carrying out a horrific murder bid using a sledgehammer, a shovel and a knife.

Stephen Sangster Snr. Picture: Ciaran Donnelly

Stephen Sangster senior and son Stephen junior burst into Fraser Winton’s Bathgate home and inflicted horrific injuries on him.

Mr Winton, 41, suffered a fractured skull, vertebra and forearm and multiple wounds as he was repeatedly struck and slashed.

The Sangsters were each jailed for ten years yesterday by judge Lord Glennie who also ordered them to be monitored in the community for three years after their release.

Stephen Sangster Jnr at the High Court in Edinburgh. Picture: Ciaran Donnelly

Lord Glennie told them: “You were both convicted of launching an attack on a defenceless man in his own home. You burst in and committed a vicious attack. He sustained horrendous injuries and it is only by good fortune he didn’t die.

“Whether this was the result of drugs or a perceived slight by a female in your family, there is no excuse for this behaviour.”

The attack took place at a flat in Owen Stone Street on 31 August 2014. Sangster Snr, 52, was wielding a sledgehammer while his son was carrying a shovel before using a craft knife on the victim.

During the attack a woman threw herself on top of Mr Winton in an attempt to shield him and pleaded: “Don’t kill him. Please don’t kill him.”

Stephen Sangster Jnr at the High Court in Edinburgh. Picture: Ciaran Donnelly

Mr Winton suffered a fractured skull, vertebra and forearm and multiple wounds as he was repeatedly struck and slashed. He was taken to hospital and operated on and his injuries were considered potentially life-threatening.

During the attack the older Sangster said: “Let’s go. We have done him. We have done him.”

But his 24-year-old son took the knife and continued the attack, shouting at his father: “He has to die. He has to die. He knows too much.”

The victim told the court that Sangster Jnr had been grinding the knife into the back of his legs.

The Sangsters, of Mayfield Drive, Armadale, both have previous convictions for assault and possessing weapons.

The court was told Sangster senior, a father of three, who suffered a stroke in 2010 and walks with the aid of a stick, and his son, who is a dad-of-two, continue to protest their innocence.