Husband asks wife to shut her eyes after sex for a 'surprise present' and brutally stabs her in the neck
A man told his wife he had a "present for her" before stabbing her with a kitchen knife, according to reports. The man, identified as Shaun May, was convicted on September 4 of attempted murder.
Reports said after Shaun May and his wife, Laura May, made love, he placed a tea towel over his wife's eyes and said he had a "present for her." He reportedly also invited her to guess what his "gift" was and began a countdown from 10, uttering "Come on Shaun" and plunged a knife into between his wife's shoulder and neck. The couple, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, had been married for 14 months at the time of the incident on October 9, 2018.
A court heard that Shaun stabbed Laura with such force that the blade of the knife penetrated out of her back and the handle snapped. Laura initially thought the clamping-like sensation on her body was a puppy clawing at her but she soon realized that she was bleeding. She managed to get out of bed and saw her husband standing with two knives in his hands, threatening to stab himself. When she asked Shaun why he had attacked her, he said that he had been fired from work the previous day after his boss discovered that he had used the company account to order personal goods from Amazon.
The 34-year-old, however, denied attempted murder, regardless, the jury at Maidstone Crown Court unanimously found him guilty. Shaun had reportedly admitted to less serious charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm ahead of his trial. His sentencing was adjourned by Judge Philip St. John-Stevens until October 16.
Prosecutor Robin Griffiths told the court that it was "a matter of sheer good fortune rather than fine judgment" that Shaun did not inflict life-threatening injury on Laura, the Daily Mail reported.
While Laura told the court that they had enjoyed a good relationship and did not argue other than "to bicker over the washing up. We really loved each other."
Reports said just five days before the incident they had returned from a wedding in South Korea. Laura said the early morning knife attack was "totally unexpected and a complete shock."
"I said to him 'This had better be a puppy' because we had talked about having one but he said 'It's not a puppy.' Then it was just silent and I suddenly felt a pressure on my shoulder. I thought an animal had been thrown on me, something was clawing at me," Laura told the court. "I was screaming 'I can't get it off, I can't get it off.' I must have reached up there at some point and realized there was nothing there, no animal. But there was something rectangular in there. I thought it was a clamp or some kind of Halloween prop because I could feel blood trickling down."
"I said 'This isn't real' and he said 'This is real'. He was calm," she added.
Laura said the couple had been working the previous day and shared a takeaway pizza while watching television that evening. When she woke up the next day at 5 am, her husband said that he heard a noise downstairs. After taking a quick trip he came back and they became intimate before he told his wife that he had a present for her and placed a tea towel over her eyes. Laura said that she continued to be on the bed with her eyes closed for about ten minutes waiting for the present.
"Shaun said 'I was going to do it then. I won't make you wait any longer. Come on, roll onto your back.' He then pulled the duvet covers down, exposing the top part of my shoulders. My eyes were still shut," she told the court. "He started counting down from 10 very slowly. There would be a gap and the lower he got he went into decimals. I got annoyed because I was waiting. He counted down two or three times but he never reached zero."
Shaun later drove Laura to Pembury Hospital where she told the staff that she had tripped and fallen onto a knife. However, when doctors challenged her narrative, she broke down in tears. The court also heard that Shaun told an officer at the hospital: "I picked up the knife and rather than injure myself I took it out on Laura."