Dad who bludgeoned son to death with scaffolding pole then made policewoman a cup of tea is jailed

Retired fireman Colin McSweeny launched the vicious attack on Shaun McSweeny in his garage because he feared he would take away his beloved granddaughter

Colin McSweeny, Shaun McSweeny

A father who bludgeoned his adopted son with a scaffolding pole then made a bungled attempt to dispose of the body in the River Thames has been jailed for life after being found guilty of murder.
Retired fireman Colin McSweeny launched the vicious attack on Shaun McSweeny in his garage because he feared he would take away his beloved granddaughter.
Afterwards, McSweeny, 59, entertained a female police officer who had dropped by to see his wife by making tea and regaling her with amusing anecdotes of his time as a Scout leader, the court heard.
In the early hours, he bundled the body into the boot of his car and drove to Deptford Wharf where he tried unsuccessfully to dump it in the river at low tide, watched by a member of the public who alerted the police.
During the trial, he tearfully denied killing Sean at his family home in Thornton Heath, south London, on November 20 last year, claiming instead that he feared he was going to be attacked himself with a golf club.
But the jury rejected his explanation and found him guilty of murder.

Sentencing McSweeny to life with a minimum of 14-and-a-half years, the Common Serjeant of London said: "The word tragedy is greatly over-used but if ever it is appropriate to describe a case in these courts, this is that case."
As well as being a tragedy for his wife, son and the five-year-old child at the heart of the case, the judge said: "It is a tragedy for you as well, as you will have to live until the end of your days with the terrible knowledge of what you did, with all the pain and suffering that has caused."
McSweeny sobbed in the witness box as he told how he killed his only son, claiming he struck him because he thought he was going to die after telling him he had taken his concerns about custody of the girl to social services.
He told jurors: "He turned around with golf clubs in his hand shouting 'What? You what?'.
"He was just shaking with rage.
"I have never seen his face so angry and contorted.
"Sean had said previously 'If you ever have her taken away from me, I will kill you'.
"I genuinely thought that he was going to kill me.
"I expected to get hit by a golf club.
"He was silhouetted. I could see the outline of a man, arms raised.
"I had the pipe in my hands.
"I just struck him.
"I heard his last words were 'Oh lord', then he fell to the floor."

The defendant denied abandoning his plan to dump the body in the river because the tide was too low, saying he changed his mind and was going to come clean to his wife.
But the judge said: "Whether that is right or not, or whether you were thwarted by low tide, probably matters not.
"On any view, you are an intelligent man and it is difficult to imagine that you thought that you could or would get away with what you had done, at least in the long term.
"You claimed to the jury that you did what you did in the garage because you believed that your son was about to attack you with a golf club and that he would kill you.
"The jury rejected that claim and in my judgment they were right to do so.
"Whilst the fact you ran a trial, and did so in a manner which involved a wholesale attack on your son's character, cannot add in any way to your sentence, it was to say the least unattractive and at least gives the impression that you feel little remorse for what you did."
Members of the victim's family wept in court as an impassive McSweeny was sent down to start his sentence.