A farmer's son has been remanded in custody after appearing at court accused of stabbing his father and holding his mother against her will.
Lewis Clapp, aged 29, made no application for bail when he appeared before Judge Francis Gilbert, QC, at Exeter Crown Court.
He faces allegations of wounding his father Arthur and the false imprisonment of his mother Jenesta at the farm where he lives with them near Glastonbury.
Clapp, of Hestover Farm, Martin Street, Baltonsborough, near Glastonbury, spoke only to acknowledge his name during a short preliminary hearing.
The charges arise out of an incident at the farm on Monday in which his mother raised the alarm after allegedly being tied up in a bedroom and police found Arthur Clapp with stab wounds.
He was flown by air ambulance to Southmead Hospital in Bristol, where his condition was later said to be serious but stable.
Judge Gilbert set a timetable for the exchange of prosecution and defence case papers and remanded Clapp in custody to appear at Bristol Crown Court on October 2 for a further preliminary hearing.
He will not be expected to enter a plea until a further hearing at Bristol Crown Court which has been scheduled for March 18 next year.
Arthur Clapp runs a dairy farm at Baltonsborough, close to the Brue Valley cheese farm, whose entry on the Westcountry Farmhouse Cheesemakers website states that the Clapp family have been farming in the area since 1538.
↧