Barrowford man 'tried to murder estranged wife'
10:13pm Tuesday 15th April 2008
A HUSBAND tried to murder his estranged wife after lying in wait at her home then attacking her with a knife, a court was told.
Allan Murgatroyd, 61, put a knife to Linda's throat and told her "I am going to prison.
"I am going to kill you", Preston Crown Court heard.
The court was told that the pair struggled and ended up in the living room, with the husband landing on top of his wife.
Murgatroyd, of St Clement's Court, Barrowford, demanded to know where she had been and who she had been seeing during the incident last November 11, it is alleged.
His wife begged him to think of their 12-year-old daughter, as he attacked her in her living room of her caravan at Todber Caravan Park, Burnley Road, Gisburn, in the early hours, the court was told.
Mrs Murgatroyd said he tried to stab her in the stomach and she grabbed the knife.
"There was blood everywhere and obviously it was very, very painful," she told the jury.
When Murgatroyd stood up, apparently to reach for the cigarettes, the court heard that she tried to escape.
But as she got to the caravan door, he grabbed her and they both fell through the opening and onto some decking outside, prosecutor Hilary Manley said.
Mrs Murgatroyd said she started to shout for help but was pulled back into the caravan.
At this time her dog, a border collie, started barking and snarling, and as Allan Murgatroyd aimed kicks at it, his wife took the opportunity to run away again, the court was told.
She fled to the nearby caravan of Kevin Goddard, who locked his door, Ms Manley said.
Mrs Murgatroyd was later taken to hospital by a friend, Julie Buckley.
Her injuries, including wounds to her hands, neck, right breast, abdomen and right knee, were not life-threatening, the court heard.
The prosecution allege that Murgatroyd was in a calm and sober frame of mind when he confronted his wife and that it was a 'pre-meditated attack'.
Ms Manley said the wife had been working at The Steamer's Inn, at the caravan park.
She had gone to a the caravan of Mr Goddard for a drink and returned to her own home at around 3.30am.
The court heard that when she opened the back door, her husband emerged from a bedroom area, armed with a kitchen knife.
Giving evidence Mrs Murgatroyd said: "As I came in he got hold of me and he put the knife to my throat and said 'I am going to prison - I am going to kill you'".
The husband asked her if she had been at 'Kevin's' caravan and she told him she had been at a friend called Mark's, and asked him for a cigarette.
"I knew if I told him I had been at Kevin's, I thought I would die. I thought he would kill me," she said.
Ms Manley said Allan Murgatroyd later went to nearby Barnoldswick Police Station, which was closed.
But he used an emergency phone to contact a police civilian operator.
Ms Manley said he told the operator that he had tried to kill his wife and he wanted to "give himself up".
Police officers were alerted and he was arrested, outside the Barnoldswick station, by PC Ian Frankland.
He is alleged to have told the officer: "I was going to kill her, I really was, and I meant to do it."
Murgatroyd denies the attempted murder of his wife, or wounding her with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Cross-examining the wife, defence counsel Mark Stuart suggested that his client had been trying to speak to her for a number of days about visiting their daughter.
The court heard that the couple, who married in November 1995, were currently in the process of getting divorced.