Magic skills saved wife from killer husband
A FOrMEr magician’s assistant had to call on her stage skills to defend herself after her husband tied her up and tried to cut her throat, a court heard yesterday.
Alison Garcia-Hernandez, 64, was set upon by her ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ partner Juan Hernandez, 66, after their 11-year marriage broke down.
Hernandez, who had been jailed for killing his first wife, bound Mrs Garcia-Hernandez with cable ties and held her hostage for four hours, before attacking her with the knife.
But she used skills she learned as a magician’s assistant to free her hand so she could protect herself. Francis McEntree, prosecuting, said: ‘She knew how to brace herself to give the impression she was tightly bound.’
She received a deep cut on her neck and defensive injuries on her hand which later required six operations.
Yesterday, Hernandez – who admitted attempted murder and false imprisonment – was detained indefinitely under a hospital order. preston Crown Court heard he had a delusional disorder. If he is ever deemed well-enough, he will serve a life in jail for a minimum of 12 years.
After his second marriage broke down, he claimed he had cancer and had returned to his native Spain. But Hernandez, jailed in Spain for 14 years the manslaughter of his first wife in 1984, had remained in the UK to plot murder. Judge Heather Lloyd said Hernandez was a dangerous offender who had shown a ‘Jekyll and Hyde character’.
The couple met in Spain and married in 2008, but separated in January 2019. On September 18, 2019, he tricked his way into her house in Morecambe, Lancashire, by pretending to be a delivery driver.
Mrs Garcia-Hernandez’s grandson, a student, raised the alarm when he arrived at the house.
She is believed to have trained in magic at a circus school. Last night, she said of her husband: ‘I’ve forgiven him. He’s got to make his peace with the world and with God.’