Jail for son who threatened parents and broke into their home

Luke Tran, 32, was said to have been ‘targeting’ his mother and father for the last decade, subjecting them to increasingly violent threats.

And having found himself homeless at the end of last year, the son asked to return to the family home in Iver. They were not willing to have him back.

The parents went on holiday but did not tell Tran about their trip abroad.

Prosecuting, Sarita Basra told Oxford Crown Court this week: “He became angry when he found out.”

He resumed his requests to live at the property. On January 22, he sent threatening WhatsApp messages to his mum, telling her: “When you get back, I’m going to beat the f*** out of him [the father].”

The threats towards his father came to a head on February 6, when Tran said: “I’m going to slash you up. I’m going to f***ing hurt you.”

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Ms Basra said: “His parents started to believe he was going to do the things he had threatened.”

They were sufficiently concerned that they called 999 to report the threats. The call-handler advised the couple to lock the doors and turn off the lights.

But after the defendant messaged his parents to tell them he was ‘just around the corner’, they got into their car and parked up a little way from the house.

They kept up a near-running commentary for the police as their son arrived at their home, kicked open the gate and went inside the property.

The court heard he had ‘something in his hand’ and was also carrying a torch. After the police arrived within around quarter of an hour to 20 minutes, it was discovered that the front door had been broken and a cutlery drawer in the kitchen smashed.

Tran, of Dovedale Close, Hillingdon, made another threatening phone call to his mother on February 24, when he again told her that he would ‘come round’.

He pleaded guilty earlier this year to burglary and making malicious communications.

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The convictions put him in breach of a three month suspended jail sentence imposed by a Reading judge in late 2021 for having weapons and drugs in his car. He was said to have been living in the vehicle at the time he was stopped.

Mitigating, Angela Porter said of her client: “He is sorry for what he did and put his parents through and said he should have thought through what he’s doing and not acted when he’s feeling so heated about things.”

He had spent the past three months in prison on remand, the court heard.

Judge Maria Lamb jailed him for two years and two months and imposed an indefinite restraining order limiting the son’s contact with his parents.