Dad left with 'nasty' knife wound to face after street scuffle with his daughter's boyfriend

A dad got a knife wound to his face during a street confrontation with his daughter's boyfriend.

Edward Musgrove set out to rescue his daughter when she called saying then-partner John Croft would not let her leave a house they were at.

Newcastle Crown Court heard when the worried dad arrived to collect his daughter, Croft was waiting for him with a kitchen knife.

During a scuffle between the two men, Mr Musgrove suffered a "nasty" injury to his face, which was treated with sutures.

Croft, 30, of Lilac Avenue, Sunderland, pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding and having a bladed article and has been jailed for two years.

Judge Simon Batiste told him: "This was an attack on your girlfriend's father, who came round to try to rescue her from you when she wished to leave.

"You went out into the street armed with a knife.

"I accept he had an axe in his car but you caused him, in the scuffle that followed, a nasty injury to his face."

The court heard on May 1 48-year-old Mr Musgrove got texts from his daughter saying she was arguing with Croft at a house in Gateshead.

When he told her to come home, she replied saying: "I can't he won't let me."

Prosecutor Neil Pallister said: "He got a phone call from his daughter who was upset, hysterical, crying and saying he would not let her go and asking her father to collect her."

The court heard Croft was heard by one witness saying: "Watch what happens when he comes, I will cut his face off."

When Mr Musgrove turned up, Croft was waving the kitchen knife around and went over to his car, opened the door and caused the injury.

The victim, who did not produce the axe which was in his car during the attack, suffered a 2cm cut to his face.

He said in a victim impact statement: "I'm in shock, I didn't expect him to do this.

"I think he has done this because he knows it will hurt my daughter.

"Every time I look in the mirror I am going to be reminded of what he has done."

Croft, who has previous convictions for violence, was given a restraining order to keep him away from Mr Musgrove and his wife and another family member.

Jonathan Pigford, defending, said Croft and the woman, who have a child together, had a "toxic relationship".

Mr Pigford said: "Whenever there was arguments, the defendant's former partner would often ring Mr Musgrove.

"She told Mr Croft her father was coming to get him and chop him up. That's why he went out with a knife.

"Mr Musgrove indicated there was an axe in the vehicle, that's why he produced the knife inside the vehicle to get him out so they could have a straightener, he would say.

"He says there was a struggle over the knife and it was to go into Mr Musgrove, but it was superficial."

John Croft

John Croft