In Re Arthur C.

Peter C. Carton, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Objector and Appellant.

Adrian Kuyper, County Counsel, and Thomas F. Morse, Deputy County Counsel, for Petitioner and Respondent.

OPINION

SONENSHINE, J.

The father of three minor children appeals the granting of the Orange County Department of Social Service's petition to terminate his parental rights. [1] We affirm.

The father and mother lived together approximately four and a half years. These three children resulted, but the union was not a happy one. In April of 1982 the children were declared dependent children of the Orange County Juvenile Court under section 300, subdivisions (b) and (d) of the Welfare and Institutions Code. They were taken from the parents and began to reside in foster homes. The following month the father was arrested for stabbing the mother 17 times in the neck, chest, abdomen, back and extremities. He was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and is currently serving a seven-year prison term.

The underlying petitions were filed and granted in 1984. The trial court found "stabbing the mother of the children ... 17 times certainly indicates a nature ... that the man has either a…