A deranged husband brutally stabbed his wife to de

A deranged husband brutally stabbed his wife to death when
she announced that their month-long separation would be forever,
the Old Bailey heard today Thursday.

Frederick Float, 49, then turned the knife on himself when
his two teenage sons came in to find their mother Brigitte, 40,
dead on the kitchen floor.

But despite literally trying to pull the artery from his
wrist, his suicide bid failed.

He later told police: ‘I couldn’t even
do that right.

‘
In court Float, a painter and decorator with a Thornton Heath
firm, denied murder but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of
diminished responsibility.

Two top psychiatrists found he was suffering from severe
depression caused by the break up of his 21-year marriage at the
time of the killing.

He was jailed for six years.

The court was told Mrs Float moved out of the family’s home in
Springfield Avenue, West Wimbledon, on June 11 this year but
regularly visited their sons Wayne, 17, and Scott, 14.

A month to the day after she left to move in with workmates
from her lab technician job at the St Helier Hospital,
Carshalton, she dropped in on the family.

As she chatted alone with her husband in the kitchen, he
asked if there was any chance of a reconciliation.

She replied:
‘Not at the moment.

Not at all.

‘
Float later told police her remark caused him to erupt in
anger.

‘I just wanted to hurt her.

I was feeling so hurt myself.

I
didn’t want to kill her, just to hurt her.

‘
Mr David Calvert-Smith, prosecuting, said Float grabbed a
sheath knife from nearby and stabbed his wife eight times,
including a blow which penetrated her heart.

‘Their two sons were upstairs listening to music.

They were
alerted by the sound of screaming and ran downstairs.

‘Scott saw his mother lying on the floor.

Float told his sons
to call an ambulance.

‘He had an extremely sharp craft knife in his hand and
proceeded to cut firmly into his own wrist.

‘
Float fought off his son Wayne, who tried to stop him, then
fled into neighbouring streets.

He was found close to death the next morning in a garden shed
half a mile away.

Four and a half hours of desperate emergency
surgery followed to repair his self-inflicted wounds.

Float later told police: ‘I wanted to die.

I thought I would
just like die on my own.

Bloody thing clogged up.

Couldn’t even
do that right.

‘
Mr James Mulcahy, QC, defending, said his client’s rage had
been caused by stress from the failed marriage, his sons and
business pressures.

‘He is not a man of violence and has not shown violence to
his wife before.

‘
Float spent his 49th birthday in court pleading guilty to the
killing.

Judge Richard Lowry QC told Float: ‘You developed a depression
to such an extent that it became a clinical illness.

‘You had problems with your sons and finances.

‘You did not want the marriage to end and hoped she would
change her mind but she confirmed her attitude.

‘
He said Float’s responsibility for his rage was ‘far from
minimal’ and said ordinary members of the public would regard a
sentence other than jail as wrong.

‘There is nothing I can say or do that will help the friends
or relatives of your wife.

‘
Float, who had sat slumped in the dock throughout, did not
react as he was sentenced to six years jail.

ENDS