Civil engineer attacked lawyer wife with chainsaw in their living room

Patrick Darragh, a 52-year-old civil engineer, will be sentenced today at Northampton crown court following the attack on his wife, Claire Bates, in the living room of their home in Denford, near Thrapston on May 8 this year.

After being rushed to Kettering General Hospital in Northants she needed 50 stitches to her wounds.

Darragh, from County Tyrone in the Irish Republic, had originally pleaded not guilty to attempted murder.

But the prosecution have accepted his guilty plea to the lesser charge of GBH with intent, having taking into consideration the wife's wishes.

Since the attack, Bates has continued to visit him in prison where he has been held on remand.

However she is not standing by him, but visits him because she is a Christian.

Darragh was previously jailed in 1998 for cutting his then partner's throat.

He married Bates, who had previously worked for the Crown Prosecution Service, and the legal services departments of Northampton Borough and Northamptonshire County Council, 7 years ago.

At an earlier hearing prosecutor Tim Spencer QC: "It would seem to be her firm intention to forge some form of reconciliation - whether it be a full reconciliation who knows? "

Bates had sent two letters to the court and had "very, very frequently" visited Darragh in prison, he said.

In explaining the crown's decision to accept the lesser plea he went on: "This man must have had his wife at his mercy with a working chainsaw yet she came away with relatively light wounds, but that does not belittle the seriousness of it."

Judge Charles Wide QC who was hearing the case and will sentence Darragh today said: "He has a long history of serious violence towards partners - in fact serious violence."

Referring to a conviction on a previous partner in 1998 he said: "The defendant cut her throat and, then having taken up with Claire Bates attacked her with the chainsaw which was the culmination of repeated acts of violence against her."

Judge Wide said he was considering life imprisonment or an indeterminate sentence for public protection.

The judge said he wanted an assessment of Darragh's level of danger, to his partner or to the public in general.