‘I can lie and say it is in self-defence’

A son accused of murdering his abusive father insisted he acted in self-defence after his parent punched him first and left him cowering ‘like a little whimpering dog.’

Sean Maurice, 31, stabbed his dad 30 times to the back and chest in Widmore Road, Bromley, southeast London, before fleeing across gardens and climbing onto a shed roof.

Paul Maurice, 52, told neighbours he did not want to die as he collapsed on their doorstep, late on 14 September 2021.

Sean admits manslaughter but denies murder. He relies on a defence of loss of control.

Sean told the court he went to his father’s house because he wanted to confront him about decades of abuse he inflicted on him and his two sisters.

He said: ‘I wanted him to recognise me as a man, I wanted to talk about what he’d done and for him to acknowledge it for once.

‘I said listen we need to talk about what happened, and he gave a confused look.

‘I said “you know what I’m talking about,” and said something that was undeniably about what happened when we were very young.

‘His response was the same as all the time, that horrible face.

‘He said “who do you think you’re talking to, who do you think you are,” something like that.

‘He went for me, physical aggression, he made contact with me my force. He threw the first punch.

‘I felt panic just terror, the same as any other time.

‘He was stronger. But it wouldn’t matter if I was 17 stone, when you’ve been conditioned since your first memories to be petrified of this man.

‘I could have been 20 stone and a martial arts expert but when he smiles and does that horrible face with his teeth I’m a four-year-old boy cowering in the corner.’

He said the fight moved into the kitchen and the knife was on the worktop or in the sink.

Andrew Frymann, KC, defending, asked Maurice why he stabbed his father.

He replied: ‘I can’t tell you in that split second what was in my mind, I know that I was so angry.

‘I can’t lie and say “oh, self defence”. I stabbed him a fair few times.

‘I wanted at the very least he recognise me as a man, because confidence and being manly is something that I’d never had.

‘If I could at least have got him to not give me that speech or tone, “boy, boy, boy.”

‘I was having a scupper (corr) with the man who’s terrorised me my whole life, taken everything away from me that I managed to get on my own.

‘I was petrified cowering like a little whimpering dog.’

Sean said that his father treated him as a ‘housewife’ growing up.

‘I left school at 14, I kept getting in trouble for really stupid things, fucking about in class,’ he said.

‘And then I was a housewife at 14 until I was 17.’

He said his father expected him to perform household chores and look after his siblings.

‘I couldn’t get a job because I was a housewife. From age 14 to 16 I was looking after my siblings,’ he said.

He said he wanted to go to college but his father wouldn’t support him financially.

He said: ‘Dad did quite well financially by that point he was a manager, he made plenty of money, none of which we ever saw a penny of.

‘He was a car salesman and he’d come home and say we smashed this target, that target, he said he’d earned 70 grand this year, 65 grand last year, just a proper vulgar man.

‘We never had clothes, never had trainers, never had holidays and I stopped getting birthday presents.

‘We never got Christmas presents because Christmas was a load of b—–s apparently.

‘He struck gold, he had free childcare and a housewife.

‘Throughout the years I’d been kicked out of the house depending on what girlfriend he had and what preferences she had.

‘I’d never had anything, didn’t have one pair of trainers for six months at one point.’

He said his father had a succession of younger girlfriends and had re-mortgaged the house to buy Christmas presents for them, while his children weren’t allowed any.

He said that after his Dad kicked him out of the house he ended up selling drugs alongside working at McDonalds in order to be able to afford to rent a room.

He gave evidence wearing a white shirt and black trousers.

Prosecutor Bill Emlyn-Jones asked Maurice: “Is it right, Mr Maurice that you killed him because he abused you?’

Sean replied: ‘That’s what I like to think. People in Belmarsh ask, what are you in for, and I tell people “murder, my dad, he abused me and my sister, what was I supposed to do?” I’ve actually said those words.

‘I’ve said all sorts to people about why I’ve done what I did.

‘I’d much rather have had the confidence to get him arrested, to go through the procedures and have him rot in prison.

‘I was angry with him scared of him, trying to make him love me. Do you understand what it’s like to live in a place where your abuser is the one person who’s meant to care for you and love you, the one person?’

Maurice admits manslaughter but denies murder.

The trial continues.