Husband tried to kill his wife in street as she walked to work

AN abusive husband who armed himself with a blade from his kitchen draw before trying to kill his wife as she walked to work has been jailed for 21 years.

Violent Hugh Wedderburn repeatedly stabbed the helpless dinner lady in the middle of a street as horrified onlookers pleaded with him to stop.

The couple had split less than a fortnight earlier, with the grandad deciding ‘if he couldn’t have her, then nobody would’. He thrust a blade into the mum-of-three’s head and body 10 times, leaving her with permanent scars reminding her of the horrific attack.

Wedderburn, 67, of Newbolt Street, Walsall, was convicted of attempting to murder his wife.

Sentencing, Judge Michael Chambers KC said Wedderburn was intent on killing his estranged wife and handed him an indefinite restraining order.

He said Wedderburn had come close to ending her life and added: “This was in full view of pedestrians, children, householders, who were clearly horrified by what they saw.”

Wedderburn initially refused to speak to his barrister ahead of the sentencing hearing, claiming he had been ‘stitched up’. But he changed his mind and told the court: “I’m sorry for what I have done, I’m really sorry.”

The jury was told Wedderburn was ‘controlling’ throughout the couple’s 41-year-marriage, becoming ‘paranoid’ his wife was cheating on him and regularly accusing her of having an affair with a man called Vincent who she had never met.

Philip Brunt, defending, said Jamaica-born Wedderburn, who moved to the UK aged 11, was seeing a psychiatrist in the 1990s. He did not understand why he thrust a blade into his wife’s body.

“The reality is he is likely to emerge from custody a very old man or not emerge from custody at all,” he said.