A man attacked his dad with a knife – because he suspected him of killing his mother.
Missing hairdresser Heather Thomson’s son Christopher Thomson had convinced himself his natural father had something to do with her mystery disappearance.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard yesterday that the 21-year-old confronted Gerard Salvadori at his home in Conon Bridge after travelling from the Highland capital on a bus.
He had only seen the 62-year-old three times in his life and never knew his mother because he was just a baby when she vanished in 1994.
Miss Thomson was 27 when she disappeared.
She was last seen leaving her home in Inverness on January 19, 1994.
Police are still treating her disappearance as a missing person inquiry.
Fiscal depute Roderick Urquhart told the court yesterday that Thomson “blames his father for his mother’s disappearance or at least believes he knows something of it”.
He said that as he travelled to Conon Bridge on the bus, Thomson called his then-partner Olivia McKay.
Mr Urquhart said: “He was crying while on the phone and told her that he’d been drinking.
“He also told her that he was upset and angry about his mother’s disappearance.
“About 10.30 or 11am on the same day, Mr Salvadori was sitting in the living room of his house when Thomson knocked at his door and was let in.
“Almost immediately he started to talk about his mother, implying that Salvadori knew something about the disappearance.
“Thomson then punched his father twice to the left hand side of his face, before going into the kitchen.
“He came out holding a knife, walked up to his father and struck him a couple of times on the head with the bottom of the handle of the knife, before putting the knife down.
“Later that day, Olivia McKay called Thomson and she could hear in the background Mr Salvadori shouting, crying and screaming.
“She couldn’t make out what was being said but she heard Thomson say to Gerard Salvadori that he had killed his mother.”
The two men then went to a local shop and met one of Mr Salvadori’s neighbours and her friend.
They noticed he had a black eye and asked him how he had sustained his injury.
Mr Urquhart added: “Mr Salvadori, however, brushed off the question saying something like, ‘you don’t want to know’.
“Although later Mr Salvadori told a neighbour and a doctor about the assault, it was a number of days after this that he eventually decided to report the incident to the police.”
Thomson, of 1 Castle Heather Avenue, Inverness, yesterday admitted assaulting his father to his injury by repeatedly punching him on the face, detaining him against his will and striking him on the head with the handle of a knife.
Sentence was deferred until June 9 for background reports.