A lonely old man’s only loyal son has been jailed

A lonely old man’s only loyal son has been jailed for six years for
knifing him to death during a petty drunken row.

Derek Curant, 39, thrust a kitchen knife into his father’s chest
then left the mortally wounded man locked inside his one bedroom flat.

While Harold ‘Fred’ Curant, 69, lay dying his son was out trying to
concoct an alibi for the killing.

He was later convinced by a friend
to confess.

An Old Bailey jury cleared Curant of murder on the grounds that a
combination of clinical depression and too much drink had eroded his
responsibility for his actions.

Jailing him for manslaughter, Mr Justice Rougier told him: ‘Of all
the members of your family, you were the one who had the most time for
the old man.

‘I wish every drunk in London had heard this case to see what
drinking causes.

‘
The court was told Curant was the only one of his father’s 10
children to stick by him in his old age and the two men had become
regular drinking partners.

The one flaw in the relationship was a bitter, long-running dispute
about his father’s treatment of the woman who looked after him, said
Mr John Nutting, prosecuting.

On September 16 last year, they began bickering about the issue
when he visited his father’s flat in Pangbourne Court, Hazelhurst
Road, Tooting.

A neighbour overheard Curant accuse his father of ‘slagging off’
the woman he shared a house with in Millgreen Road, Mitcham.

Unknown to her, Curant grabbed a kitchen knife and thrust it into
his father’s chest, piercing his heart.

His body was found days later when the neighbour peeked in the
letterbox of the dead man’s flat.

Curant initially provided an alibi for the killing but later
confessed to being the knifeman.

But he vowed that he never intended to kill his father, adding: ‘I
loved him.

We just had a row.

It happened so quickly.

We had a
struggle and the knife was just there.

‘
The jury heard from a string of experts who all agreed that Curant
had been suffering from clinical depression at the time.

The judge told the jury that merely being drunk was not an excuse
for murder, but a combination of a mental disorder and a dependence on
alcohol was.

The jury decided Curant had not been fully responsible for his
actions at the time he killed his father and acquitted him of murder.

He had already admitted manslaughter.

Mr Justice Rougier was told Curant had been jailed in 1982 for a
baseball attack on another man but had no other convictions for
violence.

Mr Michael Lawson, QC, defending, described the case as ‘a tragedy.

‘
‘There can be few offences more destructive to a man than knowing
he has been responsible for the death of one of his parents.

‘This was not premeditated.

In 10 to 15 seconds, this defendant’s
life was totally changed.

‘
The judge told Curant: ‘You father lies dead, stabbed by your hand.

‘This was a very serious offence which must be met with a
substantial period of imprisonment.

‘
Curant thanked the judge then walked calmly down to the cells to
begin his six year sentence.

ENDS
MMMM