Sikh temple worker tried to kill sleeping wife with ceremonial sword, court hears
A worker at a Black Country Sikh temple tried to kill his wife with a ceremonial sword as she slept, a jury heard.
And when that failed Harjit Singh attempted to strangle Nirmal Kaur - but she survived, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
"He made a determined effort to kill her and she received serious, potentially life threatening injuries to her head and neck, " said Mr Thomas Kenning, prosecuting.
The couple had argued over money less than two days earlier but the real motive for the attack might never be known, claimed the prosecutor.
Mother of two Nirmal Kaur woke in the early hours of October 22 to find her 48-year-old husband standing next to their bed and kissing her face. She thought he was going to the Guru Nanak Gurdwara in Edward Street, West Bromwich, alongside the house in which they lived free of charge because of the unpaid work he did at the Sikh temple.
She told the court while giving evidence through an interpretor and from behind a screen: "At the same time he hit me with something in the middle of my head as I lay in bed. I was hit very hard and was more or less unconscious. Then he got onto my chest, got hold of my throat and was strangling me. I was saying 'let me go. Why are you killing me?' I was crying a lot and screaming.
"My daughter woke up, came into the room and turned the light on. He was strangling me and stopped when this happened.
"He was naked so he would not have blood on his clothes and went into the shower while my daughter came over to look after me. She said 'mum you are bleeding heavily. We have to call an ambulance.' He said not to do that because the police would arrest him."
The emergency services were alerted in a phone call by the daughter but both she and her mother initially told paramedics and police that the injuries had been inflicted by an intruder.
Nirmal Kaur said this was because she feared being deported with her children if her husband was detained.
"It was a massive mistake but I did not understand the law in this country," she added.
Mr Kenning said: "A ceremonial sword was found after the incident - a formidable weapon that is likely to have been the weapon used to inflict the injury to his wife's head."
The couple had an arranged marriage in India in 2002. Her husband maintains an intruder was to blame for her injuries.
He pleads not guilty to attempted murder and an alternative charge of wounding with intent.
The trial continues.
