A retired fireman who bludgeoned his son to death in a custody row before trying to dump the body in the Thames near Deptford has been found guilty of murder and jailed for at least 14-and-a-half years.

Colin McSweeny, 59, lured Shaun McSweeny into the garage of their South Norwood home and killed him in a desperate attempt to win custody of his granddaughter.

He tried to dump the 24-year-old's body in the River Thames at Deptford Wharf after the murder on November 29 last year but was thwarted by the low tide.

During a six-day trial at the Old Bailey, a jury heard McSweeny and his wife Gloria had been devastated to learn Shaun planned to move out of their family home with his five-year-old daughter.

He repeatedly struck him with the pole, concealed in bubble wrap to make the evidence easier to dispose of, fracturing his skull and leaving him with brain damage.

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McSweeny then left his son's dead body in the garage while he spent the evening joking and making small talk with an off-duty policewoman friend in the next room, before attempting to dump the body in the river later that night.

McSweeny claimed he killed his son in self-defence after he threatened involve social services in the custody row, infuriating Shaun.

But a jury found him guilty of murder after less than three hours of deliberation. 

Sentencing McSweeny to life with a minimum of 14-and-a-half years, the Common Serjeant of London said: "The word tragedy is greatly over-used but if ever it is appropriate to describe a case in these courts, this is that case."

As well as being a tragedy for his wife, son and the five-year-old child at the heart of the case, the judge said: "It is a tragedy for you as well, as you will have to live until the end of your days with the terrible knowledge of what you did, with all the pain and suffering that has caused."

McSweeny had denied abandoning his plan to dump the body in the river because the tide was too low, saying he changed his mind and was going to come clean to his wife.

But the judge said: "Whether that is right or not, or whether you were thwarted by low tide, probably matters not. On any view, you are an intelligent man and it is difficult to imagine that you thought that you could or would get away with what you had done, at least in the long term.

"You claimed to the jury that you did what you did in the garage because you believed that your son was about to attack you with a golf club and that he would kill you. The jury rejected that claim and in my judgment they were right to do so.

"Whilst the fact you ran a trial, and did so in a manner which involved a wholesale attack on your son's character, cannot add in any way to your sentence, it was to say the least unattractive and at least gives the impression that you feel little remorse for what you did."

Members of the victim's family wept in court as an impassive McSweeny was sent down to start his sentence.