Husband’s ‘surprise’ was knife to his wife’s throat
13-and-a-half year prison sentence for attempted murder
A husband who tried to murder his wife as she lay in bed has told a judge he still loves her. Shaun May, from Station Road, Aylesford, was suffering from a personality disorder when he forced teacher Laura to undergo a bizarre ritual before plunging a knife in her neck in Tunbridge Wells.
Now the 34-year-old office manager has been jailed for 13-and-a-half years after a jury at Maidstone Crown Court convicted him of attempted murder. Three psychiatrists have examined May but couldn’t find a motive for the attack from a man who had shown no violence during their six year relationship.
He told the court in an impact statement read by the prosecutor: “This has affected me deeply. My life is not the same. I am not the same. I don’t think I ever will be.”
Days before the stabbing he had been sacked for stealing from his bosses - but didn’t have the courage to confess to his wife.
Instead he made her lie on the bed at their home and put a tea towel over her face promising her she was about to receive a gift.
He began to count down from 10 but never got to zero.
Instead of the gift, he plunged a knife into her neck and shoulder before later driving her to hospital for the wound to be treated. Prosecutor Robin Griffiths said he narrowly missed vital arteries.
May nodded towards the judge when he heard the sentence, turned and walked to the cells. Judge Philip St John-Stevens said Mrs May had been placed on a pedestal by her husband who “still loves her”
Just before the incident the couple - who married 14 months earlier - had returned from a happy holiday in Korea.