Man who tried to kill his mother in a booze-induced New Year attack is jailed for 10 years

A man who tried to kill his mother in a drink-fuelled attack on New Year’s Day has been jailed for 10 years.

Bruce Davis, 53, tried to strangle his mother, who was a wheelchair user, with her jumper, kicked her in the body and threw furniture at her during the attack in Inverness.

After surviving the attack, the 78-year-old said: “I thought he was going to kill me. He seemed determined to do it.”

Davis had previously denied attempted murder but was convicted of the crime following a trial at the High Court in Inverness.

During the assault, the victim, who has since died, was repeatedly kicked in the body by her son, who grabbed her hair and wrapped his arms around her throat, restricting her breathing.

He also threw furniture at her, pulled her sweater over her head, put it around her throat and strangled her.

After the woman’s death, statements made in the aftermath of the murder bid were used as evidence at Davis’ trial.

In one she said: ‘I believed he was trying to strangle me. I was terrified.”

Police were called to her home in Smithton Villas, Inverness, by concerned neighbors and two officers saw Davis through a window of the house with an arm around his mother’s neck.

He still had blood on his hands when he tried to let them in and his mother told them “he hit me” and pointed at her son.

Davis shouted, “Someone called the police because they think I attacked you.”

His mother replied, “And rightly so, because you did.”

A paramedic called to the scene said the victim told her that “her son had lost it and attacked her.”

In a statement to police at the hospital after the murder bid, she said her son drank vodka before he got up, threw her to the floor and started kicking and hitting her with a broken table leg.

She said: “He has never attacked me before. I couldn’t get away from him. I don’t want him near me anymore. I’m terrified of him.”

Davis claimed he fell on top of his mother, saying, “I would never intentionally hurt my mother.”

The victim was left bleeding and bruised after the attack and suffered fractures to her jaw, leg and ribs.

Defense barrister Graeme Brown said Davis raised four children, but when they started leaving he felt redundant. His position deteriorated with the outbreak of the Covid pandemic.

Mr Brown said: “He drank up to a bottle of vodka a day and that became his life at that point.”

He added: “Hopefully he will be in a better position when he is eventually released.”

A judge told Davis at the High Court in Edinburgh: ‘Your mother was an elderly woman who was disabled. You caused her serious harm.’

Lord Summers said: “In passing sentence I am forced to take into account the fact that the victim of this attack was your own mother.”

Mr Brown told the court that a prison sentence imposed on Davis as a teenager was listed as a conviction for attempted murder, but Davis believed this was wrong even though it involved assault.

Davis attended sentencing proceedings via video link to prison and was told his prison sentence would be backdated to January last year when he was first taken into custody.