Frenzied knife attack on mum with child outside Coventry church results in 15 year prison sentenceAS a knifeman carried out a frenzied knife attack on her as she left a Coventry church, a mother who believed she was about to die turned away and gently put her young son down to save him.
Yosief Weldemaryam’s victim, whose mother had been warned to expect her and the little boy in a coffin, survived the attack only thanks to the skill of the surgeons who operated on her.
And at Warwick Crown Court, Weldemaryam (28) of no fixed address, was given what is known as a ‘hybrid order’ after he had pleaded guilty to attempted murder.
Classing him as a dangerous offender, Judge Andrew Lockhart QC sentenced him to 15 years in prison, of which he will have to serve at least ten years before the Parole Board can consider his release.
If he is freed before serving the full sentence, he will then by on licence for the rest of the term and for an additional five years.
But Judge Lockhart also made an order under the Mental Health Act that Weldemaryam, who he heard suffers from paranoid schizophrenia with persecutory delusions, should first be detained for treatment in a secure psychiatric unit.
Once it is considered safe for him to be discharged, if it is still within the period of the custodial term, he will then be moved to a prison to complete his sentence there.
Sentencing Weldemaryam, Judge Lockhart told him: “This was the result of a plan to kill made across the course of weeks, if not months. It was a premeditated attempt to kill.
“She was fatally wounded, but survived only through the skill of paramedics, surgeons and dedicated nursing staff.
“An intention to kill is established, and failure to implement that was due to no act on your part, you intended that death would follow.
“I find that in this case anger was the trigger, overlain with delusional beliefs.
“This offence, where death so nearly occurred, was caused by anger which you could not completely control due to your condition. There is no guarantee that this will not happen again. I cannot begin to say when this risk will end.”
Explaining the sentence, the judge added: “You will be detained in hospital for as long as necessary. If and when it is no longer necessary, and if your sentence has not expired, you will be transferred to prison where you will serve the remainder of the sentence which I have imposed.”
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