Coleraine man planned to hang himself after vicious attack

Judge David Smyth QC told 49-year-old Roy Thompson: "This was not something that had happended on the spur of the moment...it was a planned murderous attack that caused Mrs Thompson to fight for her life, both physically and by persuasion".

On Friday, Antrim Crown Court had heard that Thompson, from Kempton Drive, Coleraine, left behind suicide notes to his father, daughter, best friend and former partner, and even a confession to murdering his wife Carol, on March 5 last year.

However, although Thompson did attack Carol, 16 years his junior, in their former Ballycastle home, he had a change of mind and couldn't go though either with killing her or himself.

Judge Smyth told Thompson that his change of mind may have been a "result of the realisation of the enormity and of the wickedness of what you were doing".

However, initially Mrs Thompson, said the judge, clearly and with good reason "believed that she was going to be killed. She began fighting for her life, both physically and also by using persuasion".

Judge Smyth went on to describe Mrs Thompson as "clearly a robust person capable of restraining panic and acting with purpose in what must have been the most appalling circumstances".

Thompson, had denied attempting to murder his wife, but made a witness-box confession while being cross-examined by prosecution QC Richard Weir.

Mr Weir initially got Thompson to admit he intended to cause his wife serous harm when he'd sprayed her face with an aerosal before hitting her over the head with a crowbar.

Mr Weir then put it to Thompson that he had intended to kill his wife, which after a short pause, he openly admitted.

The court had heard that on the day of the attack Thompson had gone shopping at his local B&Q and to a nearby DIY store where he bought a set of tools, including a crowbar. a length of blue nylon rope, a futher stout rope, wood spars and a roll of tape.

Before the attack itself, around 8.30 that evening, Thompson built for himself a working gallows in the attic before penning his suicide notes, in which beside one he wrote: "I would also like to confess to my wife's killing".

During the murderous attack itself, Thompson demanded to know the identity of her new boyfriend, telling her: "I am going to kill you and then I am going to kill myself.

"I have a rope in the house. I have been planning this for weeks".

However, Mrs Thompson, a primary schoolteacher, after a failed escape attempt, managed to talk Thompson round, telling him things between them would be okay, if only he would ring the emergency services.

Judge Smyth said they both even "agreed to fabricate a story to conceal the true origin of Mrs Thompson's injuries".

"Mrs Thompson's presence of mind stretched to agreeing that her husband should come to the hospital in the ambulance with her.

"She, I am satisfied, did that for the principle reason that she did not want her husband, you, to carry out your intention to hang yourself," added Judge Smyth.

However, once in the hospital, and alone in a cubicle, she told medics she hadn't fallen in the bath, but had been attacked by her estranged husband.

Defence QC, Laurence McCrudden, said a remorseful Thompson now accepted that his marriage and life with his estranged wife, with whom he had spilt amaciably in September 2008, was now over.

However at the time a clearly distraught Thompson, "was a man who mistakenly and in a misconceived way could not let go...and had resolved upon a course as old as history".

Thompson, as part of his sentence agreed to serve three years probation upon his release, which Judge Smyth said should "ensure the proptection and peace of mind of Mrs Thompson".