A man who tracked down his ex-wife and attacked her with an axe years after they split up has been jailed for 13 years.
Roland Cook, 59, severed Barbara Graham's spine when he struck her with an axe as she walked home from her job in an Edinburgh supermarket in June.
The 55-year-old mother-of-three's spine was cut in two and she will be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.
Judge Lord Hodge said: "The attack was deliberate, savage and murderous."
Cook, who was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh, admitted attempted murder.
Although later able to identify her attacker, Ms Graham did not know at the time that it was her ex-husband.
Telephone call
The couple had met in 1978 and married a year later.
They moved to Livingston, West Lothian, in 1983 but parted four years later.
There was a brief reconciliation in 1990 when they lived in England, but the couple split that year and Ms Graham returned to Scotland with her children.
The only contact since then had been one telephone call, and they were divorced in 1995.
Before the murder bid Cook had driven from England in a van with blacked out windows, so he could keep watch on his former wife without being seen.
The court heard that after the attack he spent time in the State Hospital in Carstairs. He was found to be sane and fit to plead, although suffering from a personality disorder.
Advocate depute Ashley Edwards, prosecuting, told how Cook had borne a grudge after his then wife accused him of assaulting her 20 years earlier.
He told police the allegation had "ruined his life".
"Barbara Graham felt something sinking into her back and immediately had difficulty breathing"
In 2006 he drove to Edinburgh, seeking out Ms Graham and their children, but he was unsuccessful and returned to England.
He returned in June this year, Miss Edwards said.
"He knew the addresses of Barbara Cook and his children by this stage, having carried out an investigation using the telephone directory and the electoral roll," she said.
"He slept in the van, parking it in various streets close to his ex-wife's home and he used the facilities at Waverley Station and elsewhere to wash."
On 19 June, Cook spotted Ms Graham as she headed for work and attacked her from behind on her return journey.
"He put the axe round her neck and used this to pull her to the ground," Miss Edwards said.
"He then struck her repeatedly on the head and body with the axe.
"Barbara Graham felt something sinking into her back and immediately had difficulty breathing."
'Covert surveillance'
Two hours later Cook walked into a police station and confessed.
Solicitor advocate Simon Collins, defending, said when Cook made earlier trips to Scotland he was not seeking to harm his wife, he merely wanted to see his children.
Mr Collins said that by the time of the attack, Cook had run out of money and was in despair because he had no means of continuing to stay in Edinburgh.
Lord Hodge told Cook: "You chose to return to Edinburgh to track down your former wife having prepared your van to allow you to carry out covert surveillance.
"When the opportunity arose you subjected her to a savage attack with an axe.
"This has had a devastating effect on her, severing her spine and leaving her paralysed."
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