A JUDGE told a Barrow dad bringing out a knife in front of his son and 'nicking' him on the chin was a 'particularly horrible and unpleasant offence.' 

The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm and was sentenced at Preston Crown Court on July 24. 

The court heard his son had expressed concerns to his father over his mental health. 

Prosecutor Christine Upton told the judge his father then entered the room with a Stanley knife and asked him if he 'still wanted to kill himself?' He then inflicted a wound that was 'two to three centimetres' deep. 

The father told his son not to speak about what had happened, the court heard.

"This incident made me upset and worried about my dad," the court heard. "I'm scared he will do something else." 

Nicola Carroll, mitigating, called the incident a 'very despicable offence.' She described the relationship between the defendant and his son as 'jokey' and that he was trying to rebuild it. 

Judge Richard Archer said: "He was clearly expressing difficulties with his mental health when he was in your care, spending half of his time with you. Your reaction as a father would be to help him. Instead, you mocked him, you nicked him on the chin with a knife."

The judge told him he had effectively 'lost the relationship with your son' as a result of the behaviour because he decided that he was 'not the father he needs.' 

Judge Archer raised his antecedents, which did include violent offences - although from years before. He described the ABH as a 'high culpability offence.' He said: "This is because your victim was your own son, who was obviously vulnerable."

When delivering the sentence, the judge threatened a custodial sentence. However, the defendant's early guilty plea and prison overcrowding, as well as other personal mitigating factors regarding another family and his work, ultimately led to the judge delivering a suspended sentence. 

The defendant received a 12 month suspended prison sentence, and will have to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and a 10 day rehabilitation activity.

He also received a five-year restraining order preventing him from communicating with his son.