Accused wife ‘lost touch with reality’
She was psychotic, doctor tells attempted murder trial
A HOUSEWIFE was suffering a severe depressive episode and ‘a loss of reality’ when it is alleged she tried to kill her husband, a court was told yesterday.
Grace Fullerton is on trial for the attempted murder of her 64-year-old spouse who, the jury heard, suffered 15 cuts from a breadknife.
The 61-year-old claims a struggle over car keys with Iain Fullerton during a botched suicide attempt led to the incident in which he suffered two stab wounds to the back. The cafe assistant claims she was simply trying to escape from him and ‘practically forgot’ she was holding the knife when fending him off.
Fullerton had tidied her house, wrote a ‘goodbye’ note and was making plans to go into the back garden of their home in the Aberdeen suburb of Westhill to end it all, she claimed.
She claims to have grown tired of trying to stop her spouse from getting behind the wheel of his car while under the influence of alcohol. But she told a court her plan was interrupted by Mr Fullerton, a semi-retired business development consultant, when he came into the kitchen and started being ‘aggressive’ towards her.
The High Court in Aberdeen heard yesterday from consultant psychiatrist Dr Robert Brogan.
He said Fullerton was suffering from poor mental health when her husband was attacked in June last year.
He added: ‘She started to become psychotic. Her brain stopped working properly. This resulted in a loss of reality culminating in a plan to do away with herself. That resulted in a very fixed plan to take her own life.’
He added: ‘Grace Fullerton had lost contact with reality.
‘She was very ill. She had put her affairs in order and she had picked the biggest knife she could. She was fixated on taking her own life and determined to do so, and that is why she kept hold of the knife.’
The trial has heard that Fullerton became ‘obsessed’ with housework. One friend told the court the accused strove to become the ‘perfect housewife’.
The court also heard from her husband, who claimed his alcohol abuse and tendency to want to drink-drive had fuelled a breakdown in the marriage.
Fullerton, who gave evidence on Thursday, said she was planning to take her own life when her drunken husband caught her in the kitchen holding a bread knife.
He wanted his keys, which were
‘Lost contact with reality’
hidden away in the bedroom. A struggle ensued, she claimed.
Fullerton claims she acted in self-defence and was unable to understand the criminality of her actions due to a mental disorder.
However, another psychiatrist who gave evidence during the four-day trial said she disagreed with Dr Brogan’s diagnosis.
The jury heard closing speeches from the Crown and the defence yesterday. It is expected that they will retire to consider their verdict on Monday.