Police have released a shocking video showing the moments before a York man tried to kill his wife.
The footage, caught on CCTV at their home in Strensall, shows Stephen Carr with a bow and arrow going after his wife Lorna.
Stephen Carr took a compound bow he had previously used in target archery competitions to shoot metal-tipped arrows at his wife, before stabbing her six times with a kitchen knife while she was on the phone with emergency services, Leeds Crown Court was told.
Video
Cameras installed at the couple’s home to assist in the care of the defendant’s elderly mother recorded parts of the attack on the night of 8 September last year.
Carr and his wife got into an argument over the “concerns and stresses of caring for the defendant’s mother” who lived with them at the time, prosecutor Angus MacDonald said during the sentence hearing today (Wednesday).
The 57-year-old denied intending to kill his wife and claimed he “blacked out”, but a jury convicted him of attempted murder following a trial at the same court last month.
Judge Simon Phillips, sentencing, told the defendant: “During the course of the trial, the jury heard, and to some extent saw, clear evidence that you were intent on killing your wife Lorna.
“You anger towards your wife increased that Sunday night. She tried unsuccessfully to calm you down.
“At 10.23 that night, without uttering a warning, you fired an arrow from your bow at your wife when she was standing outside by the kitchen door.”
The court was told the bow was a “heavy and powerful compound bow” which shot metal arrows at a speed of 270 feet per second, which “could cause serious injuries and even death” if used against a person.
Mrs Carr managed to dodge the arrow by closing the door, and the arrowhead lodged itself in it “a split second” after she had been in the doorway, the court heard.
She then told her husband: “You’re going to be done for murder”, to which he replied: “Yes”, the judge told the court.
A camera installed in the kitchen had recorded Carr taking a knife out of a drawer and staring at it, at which point the prosecution said he was contemplating murdering his wife.
“This was a terrifying, frenzied and sustained attack”, the judge said.
After the stabbing, Carr retreated to the garden shed on his property where police arrested him while Mrs Carr received medical care, the court heard.
She was taken to hospital for treatment to 10 wounds, including six to her upper back, as well as swelling and bruising to her forehead, shoulders and arms.
She was discharged three days later and has since made a full recovery, the court was told.
The court heard Carr was “heavily intoxicated” throughout the incident, having consumed at least a full one litre bottle of vodka that night, which the judge said he took into account as an aggravating factor.
He told the defendant: “I do not consider a life sentence necessary – but I find that the imposition of an extended sentence is necessary having regard to the circumstances in this case.”
Carr received a sentence of 17 years’ imprisonment with an extended licence of three years, bringing his total custodial sentence to 20 years.
