A drug crazed gardener slashed his estranged wife

A drug crazed gardener slashed his estranged wife and her lover after finding the couple naked in bed together on Christmas Eve, the Old Bailey heard.

Jilted David Hicks, 26, went on a booze and ecstasy binge before breaking into his former marital home through a kitchen window last Christmas Eve, the court was told.

Arming himself with a kitchen knife he screamed obscenities at former partner Felicity and her new man Paul Carter before attacking the couple.

Hicks, who suffers from a personality disorder, then grabbed another knife and began hacking at his stomach.

Police arrived on the scene to be told by Hicks: ‘Everthing’s OK.

We have been playing chicken.

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Hicks was jailed for 30 months after he admitted two charges of unlawful wounding.

Judge David Paget, QC told him: ‘It is not difficult to imagine this was a terrifying incident.

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Prosecutor Kim Hollis told the court Hicks had been married three years and the couple had a son now aged two before they split up in December last year.

On the night of December 23 Mrs Hicks and Mr Carter returned to her home in St Bennets Grove, Carshalton after enjoying a festive drink.

At 4.

30am the next morning Mrs Hicks was woken by a telephone call from a friend who warned her husband was ‘very angry’ about her new relationship.

The victim went back to sleep, only to be awoken by the ominous sound of footsteps on the landing.

Hicks burst into the bedroom brandishing a knife and screamed at Mr Carter: ‘You are in my f****** bed with my f****** wife.

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Mr Carter was cut across the thumb as Hicks lunged at him with a knife.

Mrs Hicks managed to escape downstairs but her deranged husband chased and caught her.

‘The defendant grabbed her and slashed her right arm, thankfully only causing a superficial laceration,’ said Miss Hollis.

Hicks cut the phone line as his terrified former spouse tried to call police and kicked her in the chest.

Mr Carter rushed downstairs after calling the police on his mobile phone in time to see Hicks slashing himself.

‘He then started cutting himself across the stomach three or four times,’ Miss Hollis said.

Police had to restrain Hicks him as he began stabbing himself between his fingers.

Elaine Stapleton defending said Hicks suffered from depression and was prone to bouts of self-harm because of his mental condition.

She said he had taken two ecstasy pills and had been drinking heavily prior to the attack.

‘This is totally out of character for him.

It’s an aberration,’ the barrister insisted.

‘It is something that happened to him as a result of various things.

Something that happened to him as a result of his personality disorder.

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But Ms Stapleton added: ‘He fully accepts and is very remorseful of what happened to Mrs Hicks and her friend that night.

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Hicks, of Stafford Rd, Wallington, showed no emotion as Judge Paget gave him 30 month terms for each attack, to be served concurrently.

‘What you did must have terrified both Felicity Hicks and Paul Carter,’ the judge said.

‘Both must have been in fear for their lives.

‘I accept you have done nothing like this before, and that you have a personality disorder which is untreatable and is evident in your self-harm over the last ten years.

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But Judge Paget added: ‘This is much too serious a case to be dealt with in any other way than by a custodial sentence.

ends

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