Son, 51, attacked parents over 40-year grudge for sending him to boarding school

A son attacked his elderly parents at their country home after holding a 40-year grudge against them for sending him to boarding school, a court heard.

Ed Linse, 51, initially faced a charge of the attempted murder of his father, Nicholas Clayton, 85, but a guilty plea of causing grievous bodily harm with intent was accepted.

He also admitted a common assault on his mother, Julia, 82.

Father-of-two Linse, from Watford, beat his parents during a raid in the dead of night on their £1.2m farmhouse in the village of Nether Alderley, Cheshire, on 22 April this year.

He broke into the home by kicking his way through an external porch door, Chester Crown Court heard.

Linse attacked his father in his bedroom, leaving him with serious wounds to his head, ear and hand. His father also suffered a bleed on the brain and spent five weeks in hospital.

He then moved into the room where his mother was and hit her on the head, leaving her with a lump and bruising on her back.

While carrying out the attack, the court was told Linse shouted: "You let us down."

Linse believed he should be "compensated" for his "suffering" after being sent as a child to a public boarding school for boys in the 1980s.

The court heard that police inquiries into the assault found that Mr and Mrs Clayton were being "manipulated" financially by Linse, whose Thai wife was battling with the Home Office to obtain a visa to remain in the UK.

The Claytons agreed to take out an equity release of £240,000 on their property to try to appease Linse after he sent them an abusive email message saying: "You are old and your evil husband is at death’s door, perhaps you might want to consider if taking your secrets to your grave is such a wise idea when who knows what awaits you there."

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Linse had a "strained relationship" with his parents for most of his life, the court heard.

Prosecutor Nicholas Williams said: "His mother describes how despite now being 51 years old, he never ceased telling them how unhappy he was when he was sent away to boarding school as a child.

"She describes how he has had a 'bitter feeling' towards them ever since then. Despite, or perhaps because of, their difficult relationship with him, they had sought to assist him financially over the years."

Mr Williams added: "Mrs Clayton told her son that she was scared of the defendant, who justified his demands on the grounds that he believed his parents 'owed' him some type of compensation for his suffering. The suffering was the defendant’s traumatic teenage years mostly while he was away at an all-boys boarding school.

The court heard Linse had gone to Thailand in 2015 using money his parents had given him to set up a business.

He met his wife there and got married, and they returned to the UK in 2017 after his business failed.

Referring to the attack, Mr Williams said: "Mr Clayton was repeatedly struck to the head and face as he lay in his bed.

"One of his teeth was found on the floor next to the bed. Somehow Mr Clayton then ended up on the bedroom floor by the door. Whether he managed to make his own way there or was dragged there is unclear. But it is apparent from the physical evidence at the scene that the assault continued while Mr Clayton was on the floor.

"The bedroom carpet near the entrance was heavily blood-stained indicating Mr Clayton was bleeding on the floor."

Linse, who was abusing cannabis, was later arrested 150 miles away in his car near Woodstock, Oxfordshire.

When interviewed by the police he was said to have given "vague and sometimes incoherent responses", neither denying nor admitting responsibility for the attack.

Linse has a previous conviction from 2018 after he assaulted his wife, Papapait, at the Claytons' home. At the time, he was handed a restraining order and given 100 hours' unpaid work.

Since the attack on his parents, Linse has been held in a mental health facility where he was diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder.

He was sentenced on 7 November at Chester Crown Court to a hospital order, following psychiatric reports.

Sentencing Linse to be kept in the facility until doctors deem him safe to be released, Judge Steven Everett said: “It’s clear from the information that I’ve read that the defendant had a real grudge against his parents.

“It may be in relation to his schooling, and it may be what happened in his school caused him to have very strong feelings of antipathy towards his parents.

"Whatever it was, there was significant evidence that following a long period of an abusive and manipulative relationship towards them, the relationship substantially erupted into extreme violence on this particular occasion.

“In my judgment, he is not a safe person in the community either to his parents in particular, potentially to others and also to himself."