A 79-YEAR-OLD Dunster man, who wrongly believed he was going to be evicted over an imaginary £22,000 debt, killed his wife by stabbing her 15 times with two knives, Bristol Crown Court was told yesterday (Thursday).

The court heard that pensioner Hugh Webber, attacked his wife Angela, 77, at their home in St George’s Street in October 2020, after telling neighbours he owed money to a loan shark. Police later found he did not have any debts.

The jury took just 30 minutes to find that Mrs Webber had been unlawfully killed. Judge William Hart ruled that Webber, who did not appear in court, was unfit to stand trial for murder. He will be sentenced later today (Friday).

Judge Hart said: "The recommendation of the psychiatrists is that he be made subject of a hospital order with a restriction order without limit of time."

Andrew Langdon QC, prosecuting, told the jury that Webber had called 999 at about 3am on October 29 and told the operator: "Yesterday, I just tried to murder my wife."

A former neighbour, Graham Lamacraft told the jury about a conversation he had with the defendant days before the attack.

"He mentioned there was a loan shark after him who he owed £22,000 to, and he would be out of his house at the end of the week," he said. "He said at the time he thought he had paid him off. This was a fixation in his mind and this was a fact."

Mr Langdon told the jury that Webber’s anxiety was irrational - there was no debt and no threat of them being homeless. He added: “This is a very sad case”.

Mr Lamacraft said Mrs Webber told him, "’I think he is losing it.” He added: "She said she had tried to get him to go to the doctor but he had refused. She didn’t seem anxious.

"In conversations with Hugh, he seemed to have lost all sense of reason and didn’t seem to take on board anything I was saying in regard to the way he would be evicted."

The court heard that when the emergency services arrived at the home, they found Mrs Webber on the floor of her bedroom covered in blood. She was declared dead shortly afterwards despite the efforts of paramedics to save her.

Three knives were recovered from Webber’s bedroom - two of which had Mrs Webber’s blood on them.

"Forensic scientists examined the scene very carefully and the patterns of blood distribution suggested that Mrs Webber had been repeatedly stabbed while lying on her bed," Mr Langdon said.

A post-mortem examination found she died from multiple stab wounds.Mr Webber has been ordered to be detained indefinitely.