Man aged 90 spared jail for knife attack on wife of 60 years

A 90-year-old man has been spared jailed after stabbing his blind and ailing wife of more than 60 years.

Retired butcher Edward Turpin got a carving knife from the kitchen and attacked Joan Turpin in bed at their home in Orpington, Kent, on September 22 last year. Afterwards, he called 999 and told the operator: “I don’t want to stop the bleeding. We want to die.”

While refusing to take direction over the phone, he urged emergency services to “hurry up”, the Old Bailey was told. Jurors heard Mrs Turpin, who has lost her eyesight, suffers diabetes and needs a catheter, had become increasingly dependent on her husband’s help before the attack.

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Giving evidence, Turpin said that harming his wife was the “last thing” he wanted. He was cleared of attempted murder but found guilty of wounding, a lesser offence, on the basis that he was reckless with regard to the injuries she might sustain.

The pensioner was not in court for the verdicts, having become ill after giving his evidence in August. On Wednesday, he was sentenced in his absence after being admitted to hospital with a chest infection and pneumonia.

Mrs Turpin, who is also 90, has been in a care home since the knife attack and is only able to speak to her husband over the telephone. Prosecutor Alistair Richardson read out a statement prepared by a care worker on her behalf.

He said that while Mrs Turpin’s injuries had healed well, the “psychological impact is huge” and “her whole life has been turned upside down”. He said: “Joan is very wary of strangers after being attacked with a knife and needs constant reassurance from people she knows.

“Joan had been extremely stressed and