Father gets 1 year for attacking son

A 41-year-old man has been sentenced to a year in prison for attacking his son with a kitchen knife in Songjiang district, local prosecutors said Friday.

The defendant, surnamed Deng, attacked his son in March after snapping from what appeared to be years of frustration due to a bad marriage and a nasty drinking problem, according to a press release from the Songjiang District Prosecutor's Office.

Deng, who came to Shanghai in 2006, had a history of getting drunk and beating his wife, whom he suspected of having an affair.

Fed up with his abuse, Deng's wife threatened to divorce him, which only made him angrier and more paranoid that she was cheating. She eventually left him and returned to her hometown in Sichuan Province, leaving their son behind to live with Deng.

On March 6, the son returned from working the night shift to find his father was drinking again. Missing his mother, the son took out his parents' marriage certificate, which irritated his drunken father, prosecutors said. Deng asked if his wife had run off with another man. In the ensuing argument, the two accidently tore apart the certificate. Depressed, the son prepared to leave his father's home.

Deng lost it. He took out a kitchen knife and attacked his son, cutting his face. As the younger man tried to run away, Deng chased after him and slashed his neck. The son finally wrested the knife away and threw it aside.

People at the scene called the police, who came immediately and arrested Deng. He confessed to attacking his son and explained that he was distraught by the idea that his wife and son both wanted to leave him.

The prosecutor's office charged him with intentional injury.