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Man guilty of son's knife murder | Man guilty of son's knife murder |
(20 minutes later) | |
A man has been found guilty of murdering his four-year-old son in an act of revenge against his wife, who left him for another man. | A man has been found guilty of murdering his four-year-old son in an act of revenge against his wife, who left him for another man. |
Christopher Hawkins, 47, of Royd Street, Slaithwaite, Huddersfield, stabbed son Ryan to death last September. | |
He was also convicted of attempting to murder his daughter Donna, 14. | |
After the attack, Hawkins, who was covered in blood, had a pint in a pub and said he had stabbed his children. | |
'Horrific scars' | |
It took the jury at Leeds Crown Court less than three hours to reach its verdict. | |
During the eight-day trial, sheet metal worker Hawkins claimed he had been insane and had no recollection of what he had done. | |
He said: "It wasn't me that day. It was like some evil inside me. | |
"I must have been insane. If I was sane that day, Ryan would be here now and my daughter would not have those horrific scars." | |
Donna was stabbed 13 times but survived. | |
The children were attacked after Donna went to collect her brother from their father's house, where he had been living since splitting with their mother Valerie Gee. | |
In court, the teenager said as she tried to leave the house, her father had apologised before stabbing her. | |
Ryan died after two of the nine stab wounds penetrated his heart. His sister was left with a deflated lung and stab wounds to her liver. |