A NINE-year-old girl was allegedly forced to fight off her grandad to stop him drowning her mum in a pool on their American holiday.
Mark Gibbon, 62 , from Buckinghamshire, has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly holding his daughter-in-law, Jasmine Wyld’s, head under water during a row over his will.
The family was on holiday at the Solterra Resort in Devenport , near Disney World , Florida, when the feud broke out.
Gibbon, from Beaconsfield , and Jasmine, a 33-year-old hairdresser, began arguing over the “stipulations of his will”, according to US police.
He pushed Jasmine’s head “under the water and held her down multiple times”, according to the arrest affidavit.
She told cops that she “could not breathe and believed that she was going to drown,” according to Polk’s County Sheriff’s Office.
According to deputies, Jasmine said she had to “fight Mark in order to get away from him and from under the water but he kept pushing her back under”.
It was then that her nine-year-old daughter saw what was going on and leapt into the water to her mother’s defence
She tried desperately to intervene, but Gibbon allegedly kept pushing her away.
Gibbon faces one count of attempted murder and two counts of battery.
In the midst of it, Jasmine spotted some neighbours, two sisters, and screamed at them to call 911.
Gibbon is said to have stopped only when the sisters said they were calling the sheriff’s office.
Deputies arrived on scene and took Gibbon into custody.
He allegedly admitted to pushing Jasmine underwater, but insisted he hadn’t been trying to drown her.
He claimed they had been drinking, began arguing and that she slapped him – which triggered the fight, reports Law & Crime .
Jasmine reportedly suffered scratches from the clash.
Cops confirmed they responded to reports of a disturbance in a pool at around 5:20pm local time.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said: “It’s great that Polk County draws visitors from all across the world, but we expect vacationers to behave while they visit with us, just as we expect our lifelong residents to do the same.”
“Because Mr Gibbon couldn’t control his anger, he may find himself spending a lot more time in Florida than he had anticipated.”
Gibbon was arrested and taken to Polk County Jail, where he was charged with attempted second-degree murder and battery.
He is next due in court on September 9.
Gibbon is a lighting technician, who runs his own firm called MRG Lighting.
He has worked on music videos for Ed Sheeran , Sam Smith and Paloma Faith, according to his website, as well as on film and TV sets.
He is also listed as the only director of Sage Hairdressing.
