2:37pm Monday 29th June 2009
A SCHOOL governor who tried to murder his wife with a saucepan has been jailed for eight years.
Gary Gardner struck wife Catherine five times with a heavy pan, before trying to strangle her at the kitchen of their home in Main Street, Baycliff, near Ulverston.
A court was told that Gardner’s attack happened as his health visitor wife of 12 years uncovered his lies over their financial situation.
Judge Anthony Russell QC said: “This is a very sad case. It seems your inability to cope with your financial problems made you increasingly unstable and you completely lost control of yourself.
"You launched, on any view, a vicious and completely unprovoked attack upon your wife.”
The couple had moved to Baycliff from Bolton to start a new life after he ran up £50,000 debts on credit cards.
But Gardner’s financial problems continued and it reached a point where there was not enough cash from the sale of their Bolton home to start a new life in the Lakes.
Instead of telling his wife, Gardner, 45, pretended that they were set to sign the contact for the sale of the house, Preston Crown Court heard.
And he also diverted financial mail to his parents’ house so his wife could not discover what was happening.
Arthur Gibson, prosecuting, said: “The stress was gradually building up. The reality of the situation was there was no equity in the house in Bolton, in effect no money to start a new life in the Lakes."
Two days before the attack, the couple had a row and the defendant said the marriage was over.
The next morning he apologised. But Mrs Gardner suddenly felt a heavy blow to the back of the head while sat on a kitchen chair, watching TV.
He repeatedly struck her with a heavy saucepan and then placed both hands around her throat and tried to strangle her.
A couple next door heard the dog barking and yelping loudly. The woman was then heard screaming.
Two police officers found and arrested the defendant, who said: "I've killed her. I know I have killed her".
She was left with multiple facial fractures and a partial disfigurement due to an eye socket-base fracture.
Gardner was sentenced after pleadeding guilty to attempted murder.
His wife described him as a ‘wonderful husband and a very good dad’.
The court was also told that he had never been violent to her before and that what happened had been completely out of character.
Chris Stables, defending, said: “All of those pressures became too much that day.
"He knows he has effectively destroyed his own life and severely damaged those of his wife and children.”
It was not revealed in court which school Gardner represented as a governor.
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