A remorseful Felixstowe man has been jailed after stabbing his dad three times in the back at their family home.

Daniel Eacott, of Queens Road, Felixstowe was sentenced to five years and four months' imprisonment at Ipswich Crown Court on Wednesday after admitting unlawfully and maliciously wounding his father Adrian Eacott with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

The court heard how 32-year-old Daniel Eacott attacked his father in the back with a steak knife after a backdrop of disharmony at the family home.

Prosecutor Richard Potts told the court Adrian Eacott was on the phone to a colleague when his son stabbed him twice in the back and once behind the ear on the afternoon of October 14, causing a 2cm stab wound to the upper torso – piercing the chest cavity and puncturing his right lung..

William Carter, mitigating, said Eacott was a man of previously good character, with a history of difficulties and vulnerabilities, classified as recurrent depressive disorder and social phobia.

Mr Carter said Eacott's lack of self-worth and low self-esteem had been exacerbated by the questionable success of surgery to rectify his short stature as a child.

"What had already been pretty reclusive behaviour became more extreme within a family home where the atmosphere was described as toxic," he added.

Mr Carter said the death of Eacott's dog just before the first Covid-19 lockdown worsened matters, and that a visit by police for an unrelated matter on October 13 provided the catalyst for events the following day.

Mr Carter said Eacott was racked with guilt and remorse for the pain he had caused his father, who, the court heard, had sought to take much of the blame for the situation in the household at the time, had forgiven his son, and had not been willing to give evidence against him from the outset.

Before sentencing, Judge Emma Peters said Eacott had been brooding on his sense of anger towards his father and that circumstances had combined to create the "perfect storm".