“DAD is strangling mum,” said an 11-year-old child seeking help after a man attacked his wife and then his own father following an argument.
Barry Shrives, 48, has been jailed for 20 months after intentionally strangling his partner and then his father at his home in Appledore, Bracknell last year.
On November 29, 2022, Shrives had been arguing with his 16-year-old daughter and told her to ‘Shut the f*** up and do what you’re told’ when his wife stepped in to diffuse the situation.
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However, Shrives had become ‘really angry’ and strangled his partner causing his youngest child to call her grandparents for help.
When Shrives parents arrived, he proceeded to strangle his father who had been asking for an explanation.
Judge Amjad Nawaz sentenced Shrives on Wednesday (May 31) to a custodial sentence, describing the case as an ‘episode of violence in a domestic setting’.
Prosecuting, Christopher Hewertson said: “[Shrives] lost control, he was described as really angry. He grabbed her with both hands around her throat…sufficient pressure and she started to feel it was difficult to breathe.
“The suspect finally let go of her throat but laid his right arm across her neck. He then used his right hand to grab her hair and fling her back causing her to hit her head against the wall.
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“It was all witnessed by the daughter who started arguing with her father to leave her mother alone. She described her mother as being emotional and hyperventilation.
“It’s in that commotion that the youngest daughter called the grandmother.”
When Shrives’ parents arrived, Shrives further strangled his 70-year-old father, threw his father’s 69-year-old partner against a window and further ‘shoved’ his partner onto the sofa.
He later pushed a police officer to the ground outside his home before being arrested. The court heard he ‘sobbed’ at the police station and admitted what he had done.
Defending Shrives, his barrister Oliver Small said that issues of domestic violence were present in his childhood.
He said: “On one occasion, the defendant urinated in his own clothes as he was so frightened of [his father.]”
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The court also heard that Shrives was on anti-depressants at the time of the incident which he had not taken on the day of the incident.
Mr Small added: “He has expressed genuine remorse to the psychiatrist.”
Judge Nawaz sentenced Shrives to 20 months in prison which he will serve half of before being released on licence.
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