Jail shame after ‘stressed’ CPS top lawyer tried to murder his sleeping wife

A highly-regarded senior court prosecutor struggling to cope with the pressures of work from a new digital case system stabbed his wife in the head with a kitchen knife as she slept.

Ian Farrimond, a man “without a violent bone in his body”, then beat terrified Tina with an ornamental cat – stopping short of killing her when she pleaded with him.

The increased workload at the Birmingham office of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), where Farrimond had worked for 23 years, led him to desperation, a court heard.

Depressed Farrimond, who had written a suicide note, called 999 and knifed himself in the stomach. He told the call handler: “I can`t go on”, admitting he had stabbed his wife very badly.

The 54-year-old solicitor, who had enjoyed a “good career” with the CPS, attacked his wife in their bedroom, the day before their wedding anniversary.

He told officers immediately afterwards that he had intended his assault in the early hours of May 26 to be the “day of death”.

But later, speaking to paramedics, he said: “What have I done?”

At Nottingham Crown Court, Farrimond, from Worcester, admitted attempted murder and was jailed for six years.

Judge Gregory Dickinson, sentencing “loving and devoted husband” Farrimond, described it as a sad case, committed while the attacker was “in the grip of severe depressive illness”.

He added: “But for the effects of your illness, you don`t have a violent bone in your body”.

Mr Dickinson said that since 1993 Farrimond had “worked hard in an important and demanding role, for the benefit of the public” with the CPS, before his depression took hold that night.

The judge told him: “Your intention was to kill your wife, and commit suicide.

“Forgive me, but thank God you failed.”

Bill Emlyn Jones, prosecuting, said: “He enjoyed a good career and was well regarded but had more recently been suffering stress at work.”

In the immediate run-up to the attack, Farrimond had got back from work early and that evening he and his wife enjoyed a normal evening, where nothing seemed amiss.

Mr Emlyn Jones said the couple chatted about plans for their wedding anniversary which fell on May 27, and had booked the weekend away to celebrate.

Farrimond’s wife went to bed first but then later became aware of her husband “tossing and turning” at one point.

Mr Emlyn Jones described what she remembered had happened next: “She awoke because she could ‘feel something on me’.

“She found her husband had armed himself with a large knife, and was stabbing her in the face and head.

“She screamed out but he continued.”

He added: “She fought him off and managed to disarm him, but he took up a large ornamental cat and began to strike Mrs Farrimond to the head.”

His wife managed to get to the bathroom of the family home, while Farrimond called the emergency services and went downstairs into the back garden equipped with another large knife which he then turned on himself.

During an eight-minute call to the 999 operator, he said “I can’t go on”, explaining that he had stabbed his wife “really badly” but “just couldn’t do it”.

The court was told that the call-handler could hear Farrimond’s wife crying in the background.

He later told officers: “I thought today was going to be the day of death. I couldn’t get that right.”

Farrimond suffered a self-inflicted stab wound to his abdomen, but has since recovered.

When officers arrived, he immediately dropped the knife and held his hands up, telling them “I am unarmed”.

He later said: “I know what I’ve done, I know the implications, I know exactly what’s happening.

“I will tell you everything.”

After being taken to Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, he told doctors: “I tried to kill my wife, I tried to kill myself.”

He added: “I was going to kill us all.”

Farrimond, who had been prescribed anti-depressant fluoxetine, told officers he intended his fatal attack to be quick but, as Mr Emlyn Jones explained, “to his horror, she awoke”.

The Crown’s barrister added that the motive for Fa