PENSIONER GUILTY OF HAMMER ATTACK ON WIFE GETS 9 YEARS
Retired nurse Clifford Wells smashed his wife of two months around the head because he was fed up of her “nagging” about the garden of their Penistone home.Wells, who pleaded guilty to attempted murder, attacked his wife Patricia on Thursday July 24 after they awoke around 4am and began arguing about the garden.She suffered multiple gashes to her brain and skull and was left paralysed on her left side by the attack.She now remembers nothing of the assault.Sheffield Crown Court heard that Wells told police he had “had enough” and attempted to kill himself by overdosing on tablets.Wells met Patricia via an internet dating website less than a year before the incident.
The couple married in May 2008 after a whirlwind relationship and enjoyed a honeymoon in Tenerife.
The attack occurred after they returned and started arguing about the garden.Prosecutor Peter Kelson QC stated Wells assaulted his wife with a claw hammer from the top of the fridge, and the court heard from the defense that the attack was “short-lived and not premeditated,” and that Wells had been suffering from depression especially after the death of his son in a road accident.
