Former Derbyshire soldier with PTSD 'held knife to chest and told partner to stab him'

Daniel Jonathon Gray moved out of the family home on December 21 last year after the couple’s 11-year marriage stalled, said Becky Allsop, prosecuting.

But in January Gray, 36, of Eastfield Drive, South Normanton, was discovered back at the home they had shared, she said.

“She went out to pick up the children and when she got home he was there,” she told the court. “One of the young children ran up to him and the mother told the defendant he should not be in the home, and he said to her ‘I will get you out’.

“She was pushed into a coat stand and the children were crying, and while they were waiting for the police to arrive he picked up a knife and said, ‘Go on then, stab me’. He then grabbed his wife and pushed her.

Speaking in his own defence, Gray, who now works as a lorry driver and admitted common assault when he appeared before Chesterfield Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, July22,, said that he had completed three tours of Afghanistan, suffered from PTSD and was seeking help from veterans’ organisations.

“I have been in touch with some of my former military friends who have set up their own support groups,” he told the court.

He added that he and his partner had also rekindled their relationship since the incident on January 21.

Sentencing Gray to a two-year conditional discharge, District Judge Jonathan Taaffe said: “You recognise that you were in the wrong and all domestic violence is terrible, as it must have been for the children seeing this or at least hearing it. “You are clearly receiving help with your PTSD but if this repeats it is very likely that a prison sentence will result.”

He also ordered him to pay £85 in prosecution costs and a £21 victim surcharge.

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