Mansfield grandad tried to strangle daughter and hurled racist abuse at grandson

Ian Caldwell became angry when his daughter visited his Allington Drive home to cut his partner's hair and stormed out, on July 18, last year, said prosecutor Donna Fawcett.

Just as they were about to eat he returned and threw a plastic mayonnaise bottle on the table which "split and went everywhere."

Caldwell, aged 65, grabbed his daughter around the throat and began squeezing, Ms Fawcett said.

"She could feel her legs going weak and thought she would pass out," she said. "His daughter said: "He was in a rage. I thought I was going to die."”

His partner was begging him to stop and said: "Ian - you're going to kill her." Caldwell said: "I don't care - she deserves to die."

He followed her into the kitchen and ripped open a drawer, scattering cutlery everywhere, before grabbing a butter knife and chasing her.

They tussled and fell to the hearth where Caldwell held the rounded blade of the butter knife to her throat so hard she couldn't swallow.

"I don't care," he said. "I will kill her and then I will kill myself."

He began shouting racist abuse about his daughter's mixed race partner and his grandson, before punching her on the left side of her jaw.

Caldwell's partner tried to pull him off, but he continued to kick and punch his daughter, repeating that if she told her partner, "I will kill him too."

As his daughter left, Caldwell said: "Make sure you call me when you get home."

Caldwell later called his grandson and called him a "b******, a w***** and a n*****" and threatened to kill him that night.

His daughter was left with red marks around her neck, bruising and swelling, which she was able to treat with ibuprofen gel.

In a statement, she said: "I am just worried about what he will do next. He threatened to come to my house and kill me and my family. I feel sick to my stomach.

"I am disgusted that my own dad would say such things."

Caldwell's adult grandson described him as "old-fashioned" but said he had never been verbally or physically abusive before this.

When he was interviewed, Caldwell told police the incident flared up after his daughter kicked him on the ankle, and denied that he would use racist language.

Morgan Hogarth, mitigating, said Caldwell was of previous good character.

He said Caldwell had since sold his house and moved to the north east, and appeared in court via mobile phone as court paperwork was sent to his old address.

He had been furloughed in June last year which caused financial problems, Mr Hogarth said, and he and his partner suffer "significant health problems."

Caldwell, now of Houghton Le Spring, admitted racially aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily and malicious communication when he appeared at Nottingham Magistrates Court, on Wednesday.

Magistrates told him there were "numerous aggravating factors" and bailed him to appear at Nottingham Crown Court, later this month, because their powers of sentence were insufficient.

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