Father prosecuted son over phone calls

A REFORMED Suffolk bad lad today said he has been left heartbroken by his father's decision to prosecute him over claims he made menacing phone calls.

David Grant, 48, of St Andrews Place, Melton, appeared before magistrates in Ipswich accused of making threatening calls to his father, Anthony Grant, on October 4 and October 5 last year.

Although tape recordings of the calls were played to the court Mr Grant junior was acquitted on the basis they were not menacing.

Mr Grant junior said he had made the calls because he discovered his 73-year-old father had slept with another woman six weeks after his mother (Mr Grant senior's wife) had died.

In the recordings he mentioned his father's relationship and said: “You have blackened me so bad I never want to speak to you again.

“Lead a happy life father. You dare come to my funeral and I will haunt you.”

The calls counted down to D-day, which Mr Grant junior said referred to the time he would take the woman round to his father's house and confront him about the relationship.

He said it stood for “David's Day” and that his father knew the meaning.

But Patricia Doggett, prosecuting, argued the meaning of D-day was more sinister and could be frightening.

She said Mr Grant junior had not discussed the meaning when he was interviewed by police.

Asked how the calls had made him feel, Mr Grant senior said: “He has got a terrible reputation. I think he wanted me to hit him but I wouldn't do it. I thought he might attack me.”

Speaking after the case Mr Grant junior said the trial was a “waste of taxpayers' money”.

He said: “I have had my play and I have been a bad person. I used to take drugs but I have stopped them all.

“If I had been found guilty there is every chance in the world I could have gone down because of my previous convictions.

“He would have been punishing me, punishing my wife and punishing my two children. They wouldn't have had a dad.”

Mr Grant senior declined to comment after the case.