A KIRKBY Lonsdale man subjected his wife to a ‘sustained and prolonged’ attack as he attempted to kill her at their home in the town, a court heard.

Peter Horbury, 80, inflicted hundreds of injuries upon his wife, Patricia Sin Lin Horbury, during the incident in the early hours of October 26 last year.

The court also heard that in 1992, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his then second wife, which he served 10 years for before being released on licence.

The court heard Horbury first hit Mrs Horbury, who he met in a prison fellowship in 1996, as she prepared for bed on the night of October 25.

He attacked her, it was heard, with a piston, a weighted wooden stick used in fishing, and then a meat cleaver and a knife.

Andrew Charles Brown, prosecuting, said the injuries inflicted upon Mrs Horbury meant her survival was ‘touch and go’.

“The attack was so serious, so prolonged, and involved such a variety of weapons that both the police and the prosecution took the view that the only proper charge was one of attempted murder,” he said. “She spent over two months in hospital as a result of this attack.”

Mrs Horbury was said to have suffered fractures to her jaw, eye socket, skull and nose, while the lacerations to her arms, legs and hands were ‘too numerous to count’. She also suffered a partially amputated little finger and there were signs of strangulation, the court was told.

Pathologist Dr Alison Armour provided evidence describing the assault as ‘prolonged, sustained, and very violent’.

A two-day finding of fact case was held at The Sessions House in Preston this week, after an earlier hearing had found Mr Horbury was unfit to face trial due to severe Alzheimer’s and dementia.

His attendance was therefore excused, and the jury of seven men and five women was faced with the task of establishing whether he had indeed carried out the act against his wife of 16 years, rather than attributing guilt.

Kimberley Obrusik, defending, did not challenge any of the evidence put forward.

Witness Hamish Keltie, whose interview with police was played to the court in his absence, painted a bleak picture of the scene he encountered in the couple’s home.

He was driving through Kirkby Lonsdale shortly after 7am on October 26, when he was flagged down by a blood-soaked Mr Horbury, still carrying the meat cleaver and knife. Mr Horbury told Mr Keltie: “I’ve murdered my wife.”

Mr Keltie flagged down fellow motorist Mark Pie, and the pair accompanied Mr Horbury to his apartment at New Road.

They said that the body was completely unrecognisable. “It looked like the individual had butchered her,” said Mr Keltie.

The court heard Mrs Horbury ‘came around’ when Mr Keltie and Mr Pie were in the property, and they waited with her while emergency services made their way to the scene.

Paramedic Jon White, stationed at Westmorland General Hospital, Kendal, said: “This is the worst incident I have ever had to attend. The female was covered in blood, as was the floor.

“She had a large number of deep lacerations, a lot of which were down to the bone.”

Arresting officer PC James Callon said: “She was hacked to bits. It was the most distressing thing I have ever seen as a police officer as a civilian.

Mrs Horbury, having been placed in an induced coma, was then transferred to the Royal Preston Hospital by air ambulance, where she underwent eight hours of surgery to address her many injuries.

Evidence provided by Mrs Horbury, recorded some four months after her horrific ordeal, showed she remembered very little of the incident.

She recalled being struck twice by the piston and then defending herself with a chair in her bedroom, but not of the injuries she sustained from the knife and meat cleaver.

“He was already in bed, I must have kissed him goodnight,” she said. “The next thing I know he was out with this piston.”

Mrs Horbury had said that her husband had never been violent with her before, and was not controlling, although he did not like her talking to other men. She also said that his health had began to deteriorate in 2016.

The jury of seven men and five women took fewer than 15 minutes to return the unanimous verdict that he did carry out the act as charged.

“What happened here was extremely serious,” said Judge Graham Knowles QC. “I have powers under the Mental Health Act to ensure the defendant is kept in conditions of appropriate security for an appropriate length of time.

“At a future date I will make what I find to be an appropriate order.”

Mr Horbury was remanded in custody until a date is set for an order to be made. The court will sit on April 26 to mention the case and make further directions.