First photo of controlling husband who tried to kill wife as she walked to work at school
This is the controlling husband who tried to kill his wife by repeatedly stabbing her in the street near a school.
Hugh Wedderburn, 67, of Delves, was found guilty of attempting to murder his 66-year-old wife, Maureen, as she walked to work at Whitehall Primary School.
Mrs Wedderburn suffered 10 stab wounds to her head and body in the attack in West Bromwich Road, Fullbrook, on April 6.
At his trial, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard how Mrs Wedderburn had left her husband in the weeks before the attack, which took place in front of horrified passers-by.
Reliving the stabbing, she told the court: “When he was stabbing me I just kept on thinking ‘why, why, why would someone do this who has known me so long’. And I thought ‘he is going to kill me’ but I fought back.
“I remember kicking back, which he did not expect, and shouting ‘help me, help me’ and I could see people were coming out their houses and shouting at him to stop. I thought that is not going to help, and he carried on attacking me."
Jurors heard the couple had been childhood sweethearts and married in 1981 and had three children, but for decades Hugh Wedderburn accused his wife of having affairs. The court was also told how he caused problems every time she socialised, even pestering her with phone calls when she was out shopping with her own son, the court was told.
Taking the stand later on, Wedderburn described stabbing his childhood sweetheart Maureen after she refused to return to their marital home.
He said he had been "under a lot of strain" after driving his wife away by accusing her repeatedly of having an affair with a man called Vincent.
Wedderburn said: "I wanted her back, I phoned, texted and told her in the street that I still loved her but she was not having any of it. I was under a lot of strain that week, my brother had died and her brother had died too, who I was close with. I was depressed."
Describing the morning of Wednesday, April 6, the 67-year-old said: "I knew she would be walking to work and when I saw her I was happy, but then we started talking about Vincent and she was saying she had never heard of him blah blah blah.
"I don't know why I had taken two knives with me. But I knew I wanted to hurt her like she had hurt me for all those years."
When asked by his defence barrister Phillip Brunt what he was thinking when he decided to attack Maureen, Wedderburn said: "I wanted to hurt her but I did not want to kill her. I knew there were people in the street but I took no notice of them."
Mr Brunt then asked: "Why did you not carry on with the attack?"
Wedderburn replied: "God made me stop, it was God, he made stop. I knew I had hurt her so I just sat on the wall and waited for the police to turn up."
Police arrived and found Wedderburn sitting on a wall and holding the blood-covered kitchen knife.
Jurors unanimously found Wedderburn guilty after 90 minutes of deliberation on Thursday, agreeing with the prosecution’s case that the fact he was able to cause her grave injury with a modest weapon spoke “very powerfully” to his state of mind at the time of the stabbing.
Wedderburn will be sentenced next week.
