Seven years for man who left father lying inside gas-filled flat

A MAN who tried to murder his father, leaving him lying injured in a gas-filled flat which could have exploded at any moment, was jailed for seven and a half years yesterday.

John Watson, 60, had a lit cigarette in his hand when police forced their way into his home in Robertson Avenue, Edinburgh, and rescued him.

A worried neighbour had reported a smell of gas and an engineer had called police to the scene when he was unable to get into the flat.

Constable Adel Scott, 34, told a trial that a search discovered Mr Watson in his bedroom, drunk and suffering from serious injuries to his face.

"He was holding a cigarette and I asked him to extinguish it right away," she said.

His son, Wayne Watson, 33, denied attempted murder but, after a four-day trial at the High Court in Edinburgh, a jury found him guilty.

The jury also found him guilty of a charge of culpable and reckless conduct on 1 January by turning on gas appliances, creating a risk of explosion and endangering neighbours.

Defence advocate Michael Anderson said Wayne Watson, a computer analyst, suffered anxiety and depression and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of witnessing drink-fuelled attacks by his father on his mother.

But Judge Kenneth Maciver said: "None of that excuses what happened on 1 January this year."

He added: "You beat (your father] very severely about the head and face and caused him significant injury, including a fractured cheek bone and two fractures of the jaw.

"You left him in a house in what was, on any view, a dazed if not unconscious state.

"Before you left you also turned on all the gas appliances and it is that which resulted in your conviction for attempted murder."

Mr Watson senior told the trial he and his son had argued on New Year's Night and his son started punching him on his head and face.

Wayne Watson's sister, Marie, 35, said she had visited her father with her brother to wish him a happy New Year.

She told the court she left when her brother and dad started arguing. Her brother had come to her home later.

"He was quite upset and he was nearly greeting," she told the trial. "I said 'What's happened?' and he says 'I think I may have killed dad.'"

Ms Watson asked her brother to phone the emergency services after he told her the gas had been left on.

Wayne Watson, formerly of North Junction Street, Leith, had around 20 convictions for violence and disorder over the years, the court heard, and was on bail at the time of the attack on his father.