Attacker has to wait for his sentence

Sentence has been delayed further on an elderly pensioner who tried to kill a manager at his retirement home with a meat cleaver.

Fred Butcher was due to hear his fate in June after he admitted in March that he attempted to murder Mina Turner.

But there have been delays because of the 79-year-old widower’s mental state.

Mrs Turner, 59, was left with wounds to her abdomen, a perforated bowel and liver damage from the attack at Hengist Court in Marsham Street, Maidstone, in January. She also had fractured bones and permanent tendon damage to a wrist.

Judge Phi l ip Statman adjourned sentencing for a psychiatric report at the request of Butcher’s lawyer Danny Moore.

It would deal with events which led up to the offence.

Mr Moore said when the case returned to court last week it had taken five months to “organise” the report.

The defence was faced with an assessment Butcher was suffering from a psychotic disorder.

To dispose of the matter by way of a hospital order under the Mental Health Act the court would need two psychiatric reports.

Judge Statman said: “It is a very grave offence. No doubt the victim’s health will be a whole lot better when she has some completion in her involvement in the most terrible violence.”

Mr Moore said Butcher, who was not present for the hearing, had not been transferred to a mental hospital, but was in the hospital wing at Elmley Prison, Sheppey.

The next hearing is on October 26.