'Hell and back' for family of dad jailed for something he didn't do Stuart Whittaker had a long criminal record but always denied the more serious charges against him which saw him wrongly jailed for 17 years Dad-of-three Stuart Whittaker The family of a man who spent three years in custody after an axe attack in a family home have claimed they have been to "hell and back." Judge Robin Spencer told Whittaker that he would be freed from custody on account of the three years he had already spent in prison. Manchester Crown Court heard how Whittaker burst into Mr Wilson's Wallasey home and then attacked him with an axe.