Jilted Gosport husband jailed after knifing screaming wife in heart at Christmas

After being told there was no way back in their relationship Raymond Mclaren, 63, calmly walked into the kitchen of the couple’s home in the quiet suburban road of Little Green on Boxing Day last year and picked up a knife around 8.30pm.

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Fearing he was going to kill himself, Mclaren’s wife pleaded with him not to use the knife, telling her husband he would not see his children and grandchildren. But Mclaren ‘chillingly’ and ‘calmly’ turned to the woman he had been in a relationship with since 1994 and said: ‘It’s not me who’s not going to see them.’

Realising she was the target of Mclaren’s intended violence the woman started screaming as her estranged husband, who she was still living with, came at her. ‘You pushed her and blocked her and struck her once in the arm and once in the left breast before she fled,’ judge, Recorder Tom Brown, told Portsmouth Crown Court.

In a state of ‘very real distress’ and ‘panic’ prosecutor Martyn Booth said the ‘moaning’ woman went searching for help in the road but was turned away by people in the first house she approached. After going to a second house of people she was acquaintances with, the victim collapsed onto the hallway floor after being let in by the startled residents who called the emergency services.

Police were first on the scene and began treating the victim’s life threatening injuries along with a nearby nurse who had come to help before an air ambulance and paramedics arrived. She was rushed to Southampton General Hospital and given blood en route before life saving surgery involving her chest cavity being opened up was delivered.

A 1cm laceration to the right heart ventricle was found and repaired by doctors – saving her life. The woman remained in intensive care before being discharged on January 3.

Mr Booth said: ‘Had it not been for the speed of the emergency crews and the skills of the doctors then she would undoubtedly have died from her injuries. They were life threatening.’

Meanwhile, police had stormed the couple’s home and found Mclaren calmly sat in the dining room. He told officers: ‘I’ve done the crime, I’ll do the time.’

Asked if he had mental health issues, Mclaren added: ‘I don’t think so but I must have otherwise I wouldn’t have done what I did to my wife.’

The court heard the couple were in the throes of divorcing which Mclaren was ‘unable to accept’. The defendant was tipped over the edge after getting upset over a Christmas card from the woman, prompting him to ask if she would ever come back to him. ‘She said she would not,’ Mr Booth said.

Mclaren admitted wounding with intent. The court heard he was remorseful and had ‘abused’ alcohol to cope.

Recorder Brown added: ‘No doubt these were truly life threatening injuries. I worry if she had collapsed before help could be summoned.’

Mclaren was jailed for seven years and will serve two-thirds of the sentence behind bars.

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