It was November 2, 2007, and nine-year-old Nathan Thomson was about to go to sleep when he heard an unfamiliar drunken man’s voice in the house. The man, who was later identified as Hugh Clark, seemed to be furiously accusing his mother, Ena, of getting him in trouble.
Suddenly, the already heated back-and-forth exploded into violence, and Nathan heard his mother let out a horrible scream. He threw his bedroom door open and stepped into the hallway.
His sister, Shannon, was already there, paralyzed by fear. In front of them, a heavily built offshore worker held a large kitchen knife. Clark grabbed Ena and violently threw her to the floor, pinning her down with one hand, while using the other to repeatedly stab her.
Nathan and 12-year-old Shannon started screaming at the top of their lungs for Clark to stop, but he ignored them, continuing the frenzied stabbing. As Nathan watched Clark raise his arm high into the air for a devastating hit, he knew he had to do something.
The Telegraph reported his thoughts at the time, saying, “When I saw his arm go right up in the air I knew he was going to kill her and I jumped on his back and pulled him off balance. Mum got up and ran down the stairs and Shannon ran back into her room. He punched me in the mouth and knocked me off him.”
Nathan’s weight on his back disrupted Clark’s momentum, which stopped the attack. This split-second window allowed a heavily bleeding Ena to scramble to her feet and flee down the stairs to the bottom floor.
Clark turned his rage on Nathan and struck the nine-year-old multiple times, getting him off his back. During the attack, Nathan sustained facial injuries including cuts to his cheek and a fractured jaw.
In the chaos, Shannon locked her bedroom door, and escaped by leaping out the window. Nathan managed to get away and escape the house through the back door alongside his mother.
Together, they reached a neighboring property where the residents provided shelter and contacted emergency services. Hugh Clark left the scene knowing his victims had likely called the police.
Paramedics and a Quick Arrest
Emergency services arrived rapidly, finding Ena in a state of hemorrhagic shock. She had been stabbed eight to twelve times across her head, neck and torso.
The paramedics tried to stabilize her on site before loading her into an ambulance but her situation was critical. Both she and Nathan were rushed to the Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline, where a surgical team was standing by.
Because of the massive blood loss and the severity of the wounds to her head, Ena required immediate surgery. After the operation, she was placed on life support for three days in intensive care before her condition stabilized enough for her to breathe on her own.
The Fife Constabulary dispatched multiple police units to the scene, and they flooded the surrounding streets of Rosyth. Authorities were quickly able to zero in on Clark because he was still in the vicinty.
He was located nearby after the assault, still heavily drunk, and arrested without further incident.
Roots of a Vendetta
Ena and her husband, Mark Thomson, married and established their family home in Rosyth, years before the attack. Together they welcomed their Shannon in 1995 and Nathan in 1998.
Mark was an active, present father and husband. Local accounts establish that they lived a stable, ordinary life in Rosyth.
Mark and Ena Thomson originally came to know Hugh Clark through their social circles. Since Rosyth, Fife, is a relatively compact town in a close-knit working-class community, their paths crossed naturally through local neighborhood friend groups.
The transition from friend to mortal enemy occurred because of a legal complaint that Ena filed against Hugh months prior. Even though police dropped the investigation without pressing charges, it shattered the relationship.
That evening before the assault, Mark incidentally encountered Hugh Clark while out in town. According to The Telegraph, Clark yelled, “I’m going to murder your wife, and I’ll get you later.”
Mark did not clearly understand the gravity of the threat. He mistakenly believed it was just a minor argument that had already blown over.
Justice Served and Courage Honoured
Following Clark’s arrest, the legal process moved swiftly to the High Court in Glasgow. He was formally indicted on the attempted murder of Ena Thomson and the assault and permanent disfigurement of nine-year-old Nathan.
To avoid a full, protracted trial which would force the traumatized family, including Shannon, to testify on the witness stand, Clark entered a guilty plea for both of the charges.
The defense claimed that Clark wanted to express his deep regret concerning his actions. He had a clear recollection of some parts of the incident but had taken a large amount of alcohol and could not remember what he did to the boy.
During the proceedings, Mark struggled deeply with guilt in the immediate aftermath, saying he felt a heavy personal burden that he had failed to be at the house to protect his family. That said, Mark publicly rallied around his children, expressing pride over his son’s bravery.
He told Pride of Britain, “I’m just thankful he was there at the time. He saved his mum’s life, and he’ll always be very special.“
The prosecution’s argument, presented by Advocate Depute Alex Prentice, focused on proving Hugh Clark’s assault was a premeditated act of revenge which deeply traumatized the entire family.
In March 2008, the court convened for final sentencing. Presiding judge Lord Brodie completely rejected any attempt by the defense to use alcohol as a mitigating factor for the violence. The Times reported his comments, saying, “You were certainly very drunk at the time of the offences. That might provide an explanation for what occurred, not an excuse.”
The BBC also reported his description of the case as “the most serious sort of attack, short of killing, that one can imagine”.
That said, Lord Brodie mathematically reduced Clark’s sentence from a potential 12 years to eight and a half because of the early guilty plea.
However, judge Brodie used the sentencing remarks to issue a rare court order lifting the children’s anonymity so the public could celebrate Nathan.
Speaking on Nathan’s bravery, he said, “It appears to me that Nathan can be described as an extremely courageous young man who was quite seriously injured in the course of trying to protect his mother from what you have admitted was a murderous attack by a grown man armed with a knife. The physical and psychological impacts of these assaults on each member of the Thomson family have been considerable.”
He was also subsequently nominated for the ‘Child of Courage ’ award by the Pride of Britain Awards panel because of his actions, which showed overriding survival instincts in the face of a life-threatening crisis.
Because Nathan was obsessed with comic book heroes like Superman and Spider-Man, the award organizers arranged a televised surprise where an actor dressed up as the ‘Dark Knight’ stepped out of the shadows on stage to surprise the schoolboy and hand him his trophy.
The nine-year-old reiterated to BBC News that he was only trying to protect his mother from Clark, saying, “When I came out of my bedroom door, I saw my mum getting stabbed by Hugh Clark, and I tried to stop him.” He said. “He got me off of him, and he slashed me on the nose.”
A proud Ena told Pride of Britain, “For such a shy boy to show courage of that sort is truly unbelievable. Every time I look at his cheeky face I can’t help but smile, because I know he’s the reason I have been able to carry on with my life. He’s one in a million.”
Ena did express immediate outrage concerning the leniency of the verdict, though, firmly believing the punishment did not fit the severity of the crime. She spoke to the BBC right after the court adjourned, saying it was “disgraceful” and “shocking”.
Life After Clark’s Release
Though Clark was sentenced to eight and a half years, under Scottish penal guidelines, prisoners who maintained good behavior and were not considered an unmanageable active threat in the facility were eligible for release on license after completing two-thirds of their sentence.
He served a total of five years and eight months before officially being released in 2013. Clark’s release from prison sparked severe anxiety and anger from the Thomson family.
Because details of the exact internal prison life were restricted, the public focus shifted to the stringent conditions placed on him to manage his behavior on release. His transition back into society was significantly restricted under the terms of his license.
To provide peace of mind to the family, the courts and parole board issued strict exclusion zones. Clark was legally banned for three years from entering the towns of Rosyth and Inverkeithing.
A Reddit true crime community page reported Mark’s comments about his son saying, “He will be 18 before the guy who nearly killed him and his mum is allowed back in our town. It means Nathan will be a man, and if he doesn’t want to live here should Clark return, he’ll be able to move. It’s given us a bit of time, as well as continuing to disrupt his life, so we’re all for it.”
Following the expiration of his official parole license terms in the late 2010s, Clark retired from public appearances and currently lives a quiet life.
Likewise, after the heavy publicity surrounding the 2008 Pride of Britain awards and the subsequent media coverage of the attacker’s release in 2013, the Thomson family have also maintained their privacy.
For more stories involving unexplained behavior, check out our pieces on the Tromp family disappearance, and Stephen Griffiths, the ‘Crossbow Cannibal.
