'My father-in-law tried to kill me with a meat cleaver'

A dad said he was convinced he was going to die after his father-in-law hit him on the back of the head with a meat cleaver while he was eating his dinner.

After a two-week trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, Chacko Abraham Thenakarayil, 71, was found  guilty  of attempted murder.

The attack happened in front of the victim's three-year-old daughter who was also sat at the dinner table.

"I just felt a hit on my head," the victim said. "It felt like when you break a coconut, and you hear that [sound]."

The victim, who lives in Chelmsford but does not want to be named, believes Thenakarayil attacked him because of control issues.

He claimed his father-in-law was angry because he and Thenakarayil's daughter had refused to pay for his airfare to return to India.

But despite his ordeal last year, the victim said he still referred to Thenakarayil as "dad".

The incident happened on the evening of the King's Coronation, on 6 May.

The victim, an engineer, had planned on a quiet evening while his wife had gone to shops, but it ended with him fearing for his life.

He was eating dinner next to his daughter at about 20:00 BST, when he was struck from behind by Thenakarayil.

"I turned around and I saw him, and he was holding a meat cleaver," he told BBC Essex.

"It was a very heavy knife - I knew that he had hit me on the head and that's all I remember.

"I asked him 'why did you do this to me?', and he was saying a lot of things and I couldn't understand anything, I was just shocked - I just grabbed hold of the knife."

The victim said the only thought going through his head in that moment was "I might die".

He called his wife and said: "You need to call the ambulance, daddy hit me with a knife."

After he ended the call, Thenakarayil tried to stab him again with another knife.

The victim managed to disarm his father-in-law and threw the two knives into the garden. Thenakarayil responded by pulling out a third.

"When I saw him again, he was holding another heavy knife and it looked like he was determined to kill me," he added.

The victim said neighbours came over and managed to pull Thenakarayil outside.

When his wife returned from the shops, she said the front of her house was filled with emergency workers and her husband had lost a lot of blood.

While the victim was being treated, Thenakarayil calmly entered the house.

"He went into his room as if nothing had happened and he was sat there watching TV," the victim said.

"An officer came and took him outside and after he was arrested, he yelled 'I'm not finished yet'."

Thenakarayil was living alone in India before the couple invited him to move to the UK and live with them in 2019.

His daughter said she even took out a loan to take care of her father who had a lifelong health condition.

But the victim said Thenakarayil's manipulative nature started to create a negative energy in the house.

He sent voice notes to family back in India and claimed he was being tortured and underfed, the couple said.

Judge Chris Morgan, sentencing, said he was "satisfied" Thenakarayil was "well" looked after.

The victim believed Thenakarayil thought it would be easier to control his daughter if he was out of the picture.

"Maybe he was trying to go back [to India], but he wanted to go back with honour because he knew he couldn't stay here any more," he said.

"Maybe he just wanted to finish me off and then get my wife to look after him for the rest of his life - if I'm out of the picture."

The victim had met his wife on an Indian marriage matrimonial website while they were both living in the UK and became engaged.

Initially, their respective parents were on board with the wedding, but Thenakarayil later wanted to call it off because he found a "better" suiter.

The victim's wife told BBC Essex: "In front of extended family members he said, 'if you dare marry that boy, I will cut your head off and I will write it down that you are not my daughter any more'."

She said that reaction was down to Thenakarayil knowing he could control his daughter.

When she returned to England, she wed her husband against her father's will in 2007.

The attack happened 17 years into their marriage.

Speaking after her dad was convicted, she said: "I definitely don't think it was a joke when dad said he would cut my head because dad is a very unforgiving person.

"I have seen his anger and I know for sure that he would have killed me.

"He would have said you've bought dishonour to the family by not listening to what I said and that would be the end of it."

After he was arrested, she said she confronted her dad and asked him if he was "satisfied with what he had done".

She added: "He said 'no, I am not satisfied yet....he is not dead yet'."

Thenakarayil was sentenced to eight years in prison on Wednesday at Chelmsford Crown Court.

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