Senior lawyer jailed for stabbing wife because of ‘desperation’ over increased workload

A HIGHLY regarded senior court prosecutor stabbed his wife in the head while she slept after he suffered a bout of depression brought on by the pressures of work.

Iain Farrimond had enjoyed a “good career” with the Crown Prosecution Service, but attacked his wife in their bedroom in “desperation” at his situa- tion on the day before their wedding anniversary.

The 54-year-old solicitor told police immediately afterwards that he had intended his assault to be the “day of death”. But later, speaking to paramedics, he said: “What have I done?”

His motive had been his fears that he would have to lose his job over an “increasing feeling that he couldn’t cope at work” because of a new online case system, Nottingham Crown Court heard yesterday.

Having failed to kill his wife with a kitchen knife, Farrimond then beat her with an ornamental cat – only stopping the assault when she pleaded with him.

Farrimond, who had penned a suicide note at the scene of the assault in the early hours of May 26, yesterday admitted attempted murder.

The court heard that Farrimond, of Worcester, had been employed with the Birmingham CPS for about 23 years, latterly as a senior crown prosecutor.

Bill Emlyn Jones, prosecuting, said that in the immediate run-up to the attack, Farrimond and his wife had enjoyed a normal evening together. The couple chatted about plans for their wedding anniversary on May 27.

He described what Mrs Farrimond remembered later that night in bed: “She awoke because she could ‘feel something on me’. She found her husband had armed himself with a large knife, and was stabbing her in the face and head.”

He added that the motive for Farrimond’s attack “had been his increasing feeling that he couldn’t cope at work”.

“His increased workload and the introduction of the digital case system, which he was struggling to cope with, led him to desperation,” Mr Jones said.

The court was told that his wife had recovered from her physical injuries.

Jailing Farrimond for six years, Judge Gregory Dickinson described it as a sad case, committed while the attacker was “in the grip of severe depressive illness”.

He added: “But for the effects of your illness, you don’t have a violent bone in your body”.