A support worker who fractured his wife’s skull with a machete after finding out she might be leaving him for another man has been found not guilty of attempted murder.
David Wing, 56, got into an argument with his wife Yvonne after reading her messages on Facebook and used the heavy weapon to inflict lacerations to her face and head and fractures to her skull, his trial at Cardiff Crown Court heard.
Wing, who previously admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent in relation to the attack at their home in Cymmer, Porth, South Wales, but denied attempted murder was found not guilty of the more serious charge on Wednesday.
Sentencing him to eight years and eight months in prison for the attack, Judge Neil Bidder QC said Wing “nearly killed (his) wife” after “some provocative behaviour” from her which did not “justify any violence let alone the violence you inflicted upon her”.
- Found not guilty of attempted murder
- Admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent
- Sentenced to eight years and eight months
He said: “You wholly lost your temper with her.
“On the stairs as she was ascending those stairs you struck her three times to the head with heavy blows with a machete.”
Judge Bidder said aside from the lacerations and fractures Mrs Wing’s employment, wages and mental health had suffered since the incident.
The court heard the Wings, who had been married for a year, had an unconventional relationship in that Wing, who worked at a school for children with autism, knew his wife was having sex with their friend Donovan Watkins.
Summing up the case, Judge Bidder said Wing found out she was planning to leave him and on the morning of September 11, last year, told Mrs Wing he wanted a separation and there was nothing more to say.
The court heard the pair started drinking spirits and Wing decided to paint over murals in their South Wales home, which he had painted for his wife.
“She put on a Rhianna track and kept playing that track and he believed that she was taunting him,” said the judge adding that the track was Love On The Brain and Mrs Wing replayed the lyrics: “He f**** me so good, I can’t get enough, it must be love on the brain.”
Judge Bidder said the pair argued, Wing threw a glass at the wall, smashing it, got a knife and slashed their wedding photos and there was a scuffle between them.
He said the prosecution claimed Wing acted in a “jealous rage” but the defence denied this.
In his closing speech, Stephen Thomas argued that Wing could have killed Mrs Wing if that was what he had been intending with the machete, which weighed 0.5kg and had a “thick cutting edge”.
He added: “They did not have a conventional relationship.
“If he was of a jealous disposition would he really let his wife sleep with another man?
“The incident, the defence say, was not born out of jealousy. He believed he was going to be attacked by his wife and acted quickly … When his wife was lying on the floor he did not do anything else to injure her … he wanted his wife to live, not die.”
In her victim impact statement, which was read to the court by James Wilson, for the prosecution, Mrs Wing said she had suffered pain and numbness from her injuries in the months that followed the attack, had not wanted to go home and had had to clean up the blood when she did return.
“I feel like I need to rewire my brain,” she said. “It has made me question myself.
“The attack had changed me; it has had a huge impact on my life. I will live every day with the reminder of what David did to me for the rest of my life.”
Wing was made the subject of a restraining order not to contact Mrs Wing.