Grieving father is found guilty of trying to kill man with machete

Grieving father is found guilty of trying to kill man with machete after blaming him for the death of his son who was found dead in a pond after taking drugs while camping with friends

• Samson Price, 48, stalked Patrick Brown via a tracker placed on his car
• Price showed no emotion as the jury found him guilty of attempted murder 

A grieving father who launched an ‘eye for an eye’ machete attack on the teenager he blamed for his son’s death was today found guilty of attempted murder.

Samson Price, 48, stalked Patrick Brown via a tracker placed on his car and then slashed him with the 16-inch machete as he left a gym in Northwich, Cheshire in September last year.

Mr Brown, from Winsford, Cheshire escaped bleeding to death ‘by millimetres’ as the machete just missed a vital artery but was left with life changing injuries.

Price showed no emotion as the jury found him guilty of attempted murder at Chester crown court yesterday.

Judge Michael Leeming adjourned sentence until March 24 but warned Price that it would be ‘very significant indeed’. 

Samson Price, 48, pictured today in a police mugshot after being found guilty to trying to murder Patrick Brown

He said that guidelines for attempted murder where the victim might need life long care or had a long term effect on the ability to carry out day to day activities ranged from between 25 to 30 years.

The jury had heard that Price blamed Mr Brown for the death of his son Samson Junior who drowned in a pond near the family home in Wigan, Greater Manchester in October 2020.

Brown and two other teenagers were arrested on suspicion of murder after Mr Price had found his son’s body floating in the pond, known locally as Westwood Flash.

But a five month police investigation concluded that the death was accidental after evidence that the teenagers had gone to the pond to take the hallucinogenic drug LSD and Samson Junior had wandered away from the others.

Prosecutor Simon Mills had claimed that Price, a painter and decorator, had launched ‘a pre-planned’ attacked which was an ‘eye for an eye’ bid to avenge his son’s death.

Mr ills said that Mr Brown cheated death by ‘sheer luck’ and prompt medical attention after gym goers who had witnessed the attack alerted the emergency services.

The trial was shown video footage from the gym’s CCTV cameras of Price raining blows on his victim as Mr Brown tried to flee for his life.

Price (left) stalked Mr Brown (right) via a tracker placed on his car and then slashed him with the 16 inch machete as he left a gym in Northwich, Cheshire in September last year

Samson Junior who drowned in a pond near the family home in Wigan, Greater Manchester in October 2020

Price and his wife Rosanna (pictured with Samson Jnr) had ‘made it clear to the police that they considered the people who had been arrested were responsible for their son’s death’

The jury yesterday rejected Price’s claim that he had not intended to kill Mr Brown but had wanted to ‘give him a day of hell’ and leave him with scars for life which would remind him of his son’s death.

The court had been told that Price, who handed himself into the police three weeks after the attack, had pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm but had denied attempted murder.

He had told the court that he and his wife Rosanna had blamed Greater Manchester police for a ‘ botched ‘ investigation which had ‘ made many mistakes.’

He told the court that he had tracked Mr Brown to the PureGym in Northwich and had attacked him as he came out.

Price told his wife that he considered himself to have died after Samson Jnr’s death 

Price said:’ ‘He seemed to be happy and was talking to someone on his phone. I was struck by the unfairness of it all. I decided tom punish him but not once did I think I was trying to kill him.

‘I did not want to kill him but an opportunity presented itself to inflict pain and cause physical scarring which would last for the rest of his life. At no point was I intending to kill him. He was the only person who could tell us what happened to our son.

‘I wanted to give him a day of heel. I wanted him to have the worst day of his life. I did not decide to act as judge, jury and executioner.’ 

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