He's seen his beloved daughter convicted of the most horrific of crimes.
But Paul Whinham has today vowed to stand by his daughter Jessica as she serves a 21-year sentence for attempted murder.
Along with her then partner John Hamblin, the 21-year-old subjected their supposed friend Paul Binks to sickening violence at her home in North Shields last year.
Newcastle Crown Court heard how the sadistic pair turned on their victim as he slept leaving him with horrifying injuries in an apparent attempt to cut his heart out. He woke with his intestines sticking out and said he was then throttled with a phone charger, put in a bath and told he would be drowned.
Jurors found both Hamblin, 43, and Whinham guilty of attempted murder earlier this year and the pair have now been jailed for a total of 50 years.
Today Whinham's dad, Paul, has revealed how his daughter's life spiralled downwards after she became hooked on drugs following the disappearance of her big brother, and started a secret relationship with violent older man Hamblin.
But the 72-year-old said Whinham is now drug-free and determined to get her life back on track after serving her long sentence.
He said: "She's as sober as a judge now and she can see her mistakes and problems and that she has put herself in this position.
"She's as clean as a whistle and it looks like I have got my daughter back. We are not going anywhere. We are here and will be here for her whenever she gets out."
Former Burnside High School pupil Whinham grew-up as part of a large family in Wallsend. Paul said she never caused the family any problems as a child.
"She was a beautiful girl," she said, "She was very pleasant and very hopeful. We never had a problem with her. She wasn't someone you would ever imagine would go down the road of drugs."
But the family were hit by heartache in 2016 when Whinham's 31-year-old brother Michael went missing.
Police launched a huge search operation, but to this day no one knows what happened to him. And Paul believes this could have been the catalyst for some of Whinham's problems.
"Jessica and Michael were very very close. She misses him a lot and it has affected her," he said. "Her life going downhill was about Michael, 100%. It played on her mind. She used to spend a lot of time with Michael."
After finishing school and going to college Whinham was dealt a further blow when her dream of joining the RAF was shattered because of her weight.
"She was going to join the RAF. I was over the moon when she told me because my mother was a Sergeant in the RAF," said Paul.
"She had to take a medical before she signed up to the RAF and she they said she had to lose 22kg. Her attitude was she was happy with her weight so she didn't do it.
"Things went down hill from there. She moved out from home. I thought she was sofa surfing and going to friends' houses. I wasn't aware she was sleeping rough on Northumberland Street. She got into drugs then, but she kept it quiet from us."
In 2020 however, a charity found Whinham a flat in North Shields. Paul thought things were looking up for his daughter, who after getting a home of her own also got a pet cat who had kittens.
But he was unaware that she had also started a relationship with Hamblin, who had recently been released from prison.
"She bumped into this guy on the street. He was homeless, and because of what she had been through she took him in.," said Paul. "Unbeknown to her he had just got out of jail for a similar offence. Then what happened was, she fell for him hook, line and sinker. She was 20 and he was 41. He and Paul Binks were coming and going from her flat.
"She got addicted to heroin. As far as I was aware all she had done before was smoke cannabis."
On the night of the attack Paul said he went to Whinham's flat after being told there were two men trying to kick the door in. He called the police and when he arrived Mr Binks and Hamblin were outside.
"I wasn't aware of this relationship or that he had been staying there. I didn't know anything about the relationship until that night," said Paul.
As Hamblin, of Stirling Drive, North Shields and Whinham, of Stanley Street West, stood trial jurors heard how Mr Binks, who had been spending time with the couple at the flat for the past two weeks, suffered seven separate knife wounds in the attack, which happened in September last year.
Mr Binks told police he had left the flat on the night of September 10 to buy drugs and when he told his dealer he was staying at Whinham’s home, the dealer told him she was “a bit dodgy” and that she “was a grass and had got lads in trouble in the past for things that were not substantiated”.
Mr Binks told Hamblin what he had heard, which prompted a "savage" response, the court heard.
The victim said he fell asleep on the sofa and when he woke up he was on the floor. He could see his intestine sticking out, and Hamblin told him he had been stabbed.
Mr Binks told the court: “I looked down and pulled my top up and there was a tube, my intestine. I was trying to push it back in. I remember him trying to go for my throat and I put my hand up. He was standing over me with a knife, I couldn’t understand. I thought I was dreaming. I started thinking I’m badly injured here. I was bleeding profusely.
“Jess was mopping up the blood. There was a bit of flesh. I thought it was my liver. I was in a dream-like state. It was so surreal.
“Jess took the bit of flesh off me and put it in the bucket. Jess said ‘we’ve got your heart out, it’s in the bucket.’”
He continued: “I had no strength at all, my guts were hanging out. I think I went into survival mode. I remember thinking ‘I’m not dying here, I need to survive’.”
Mr Binks said Whinham said: “It’s done, it’s done, you’re dead, it’s over, you’re dead.” He added: “I honestly thought he was going to kill me. I could see a different man there, it was not the Jon I had known.”
He said Hamblin tried to slash him again and he said “no,no, no, howay.” He added: “I remember thinking ‘He is going to kill me” and “I’m dying.”
Mr Binks said Whinham “didn’t seem bothered at all” and was cleaning up. At one point, he said she said: “Aye that’s what you get for calling me a grass.”
He also said she was “trying to wind me up” and put music on saying they were the last songs he was going to hear. He said Whinham told him: “You’re a goner, no one is going to see you again.”
He said Hamblin then put a phone charger around his neck and tightened it with his foot on his back, to the point he heard it creaking. He said they then put him in the bath.
He added: “Jon put the hot water on and said he was going to drown me. I said ‘no, no, don’t drown me,’ it’s one of my worst fears. I said just stab me. He said ‘it’s dead peaceful man, you will be alright, you are going to die anyway, you might as well have a peaceful death.’”
Mr Binks said Whinham complained her gas was being “wasted on you” by using hot water so swapped it to running the cold tap. He said he pulled the plug out and was begging for his life and telling them he didn’t want to die.
He said Hamblin told him he was “basically already dead” and said he was going to “chop me up and put me all over North Tyneside.” After promising not to tell anyone what they had done, he was eventually told he could leave.
Mr Binks escaped and staggered to the nearby home of strangers Rex and Harleen Werewolf who saved his life as they waited for paramedics to arrive.
Whinham has been on remand at HMP Low Newton since she was convicted. And Paul believes prison could have saved his daughter.
"I 100% think she was groomed. She's said she did have feelings for Hamblin, but she didn't know about his past," he said.
"At the end of the day, the advice I give to Jessica is it's not the end of the world, you are a young girl. But even if you have to do a long time you have to back the most of it.
"Since I have been visiting her she's been clean. I visit her once a fortnight. It's really nice for us to be together. She's passed a few certificates since she's been in there.
"I have said to Jessica: 'It's a bad situation you are in, but make it better for yourself."
Hamblin has been locked up for 29 years while Whinham got 21 years.
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