Controlling husband jailed for 18 years for trying to murder wife when she ended their marriage

A jealous and controlling husband who tried to murder his wife by stabbing her repeatedly with a cleaver to stop her ending their marriage has been jailed for 18 years.

William Clapperton, 58, slashed his partner of 14 years Pat across the face, body and arms and attempted to break her neck, telling her: “We are going to die here together.”

The former Tesco worker started the attack by cutting up his wife’s clothes, and when she tried to intervene he armed himself with the cleaver, inflicting wounds so she would be “ugly” and “no man would want her”.

Earlier in the evening, the victim had told Clapperton she was ending the marriage after she had slipped into debt trying to support her jobless and hard-drinking partner.

Clapperton denied attempted murder but was convicted following an Old Bailey trial, and was today jailed for 18 years by Judge Anne Molyneux.

“It was your wife’s decision to leave you that caused the attack to begin”, she told him. “You had been ruminating over her disengagement from the relationship and now realised you had lost your control over her.

“Your messages preceding and following the attack demonstrate distorted thinking, jealousy, self-pity, emotional blackmail, and a desire to control.”

The court heard the victim now locks herself away in the wake of the attack, afraid to go outside for fear of being attacked again and not wanting people to see the extent of her facial injuries.

“Since this has happened I have locked myself away," she told the court in an impact statement.

“If I have to go out, I go out at night so not many people see me. This makes me very sad, I won’t be the same again.”

A police officer read out Mrs Clapperton’s statement in court, struggling to hold back tears as she revealed how the victim cannot sleep at night and has been unable to work since the attack.

“Any time I look in the mirror, every part of me that used to me is gone. All it reminds me of is him, a constant reminder of the pain – nothing but pain.”

Mrs Clapperton said their relationship, which started after a chance Valentine’s Day meeting in London, had been happy but took a turn for the worse when her husband lost his Tesco job for sexually harassing a manager.

He began drinking heavily while she struggled under the weight of financial responsibilities, borrowing money from friends and family to survive.

She resolved to end the marriage following a trip back to her native Thailand in January last year, with matters coming to a head on February 16 when she confirmed to Clapperton she was leaving.

WhatsApp messages showed Clapperton had asked if his wife had met someone else and he implied he may post an intimate photo of her on Facebook.

In the early hours of the next morning, a drunk Clapperton took a pair of scissors to his wife’s jackets as she lay in bed at their Twickenham home.

She screamed for help when Clapperton began to attack her with the scissors and then punched her repeatedly in the face while stopping her from fleeing the home.

Clapperton continued the attack with a cleaver from the kitchen, stabbing her repeatedly and only stopping when he became too exhausted to continue.

“We are going to die her together, you are going to die because you have lost so much blood”, he told her.

Mrs Clapperton remained in the home, bleeding heavily but too afraid to flee or call for help, and eventually escaped hours later at 7.15am, running barefoot down the street until a passing stranger came to her aid.

Clapperton had stabbed himself in the chest and wrists when he was arrested by police.

Judge Molyneux ordered him to serve at least two thirds of the 18-year prison sentence and imposed an extra four years on licence when he is released.

He admitted criminal damage and was found guilty at trial of attempted murder.

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