Husband tried to decapitate wife

A man from Teesside who tried to decapitate his partner has been sent to a mental institution indefinitely.

Anthony Flavien, 41, attacked wheelchair user Mrs Flavien and bit off her left ear, before he tried to cut off her head with a kitchen knife.

Teesside Crown Court heard the pair were watching TV in their Middlesbrough flat, when he began shouting at the screen, tipped up the wheelchair and dragged his wife onto the floor.

Mrs Flavien, who is just 4ft 8in tall, was recovering from a triple heart bypass and receiving radio therapy at the time.

After a few minutes Flavien got up, walked up and down shouting to himself and told her to call an ambulance, but she had already called a friend on his mobile phone.

Suicide attempts

Police traced Flavien on Middlesbrough's Netherfields estate and eventually overpowered him.

Flavien, who was on a computer degree course at Teesside University, told police he could not remember the attack.

The court heard Flavien had previously made several suicide attempts.

Psychiatrist Doctor Nicola Green said that he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and was now detained in the Hutton Centre at St Luke's Psychiatric Hospital in Middlesbrough.

Flavien of Welton House Flats, Netherfields, Middlesbrough, was ordered to be detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act in a secure mental hospital.

He had pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent on 15 December 2002.

A charge of attempted murder, which he denied, was left on the court file.