bloodrayne
07-09-2006, 11:57 AM
British Cop Jailed For 12 Years For Almost Beheading Wife
London - A jealous police officer who tried to murder his wife by cutting through her neck with a saw after ramming her car off a road in southwest Scotland has been jailed for 12 years.
John Kelly, 45, ploughed his vehicle into Audrey McDowall's car in Dumfries last year. Horrified witnesses watched as he then grabbed the saw and started to hack into her neck.
Kelly showed no emotion as judge Colin Carloway told the High Court in Edinburgh that he remained a serious danger to the woman he loved.
"This was a serious and deliberate attempt to kill your former wife," Carloway said, noting that Kelly would remain under supervision for six years following his release.
During an earlier hearing, the court heard that McDowell suffered a 15-centimetre (5.9-inch) deep neck wound that just missed her carotid artery and internal jugular vein following the attack on September 29.
Kelly, who was a sergeant with the Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary at the time, pleaded guilty to attempted murder at the hearing in June.
He and McDowall married in 1985 but she began an affair in 2002 after becoming increasingly unhappy, the court heard.
As a result, the police officer mounted a campaign of harassment against her even after the pair divorced in August last year.
On the day of the attempted murder, he drove his car straight into hers, the court was told.
McDowall knew she had to escape her car but the driver's door was jammed.
Kelly, armed with the saw, then wrenched it open and attacked her for between three and five minutes.
Despite surviving the ordeal, McDowall, a primary school deputy headmistress, has been left permanently disfigured and suffers from numbness in the left side of her face.
London - A jealous police officer who tried to murder his wife by cutting through her neck with a saw after ramming her car off a road in southwest Scotland has been jailed for 12 years.
John Kelly, 45, ploughed his vehicle into Audrey McDowall's car in Dumfries last year. Horrified witnesses watched as he then grabbed the saw and started to hack into her neck.
Kelly showed no emotion as judge Colin Carloway told the High Court in Edinburgh that he remained a serious danger to the woman he loved.
"This was a serious and deliberate attempt to kill your former wife," Carloway said, noting that Kelly would remain under supervision for six years following his release.
During an earlier hearing, the court heard that McDowell suffered a 15-centimetre (5.9-inch) deep neck wound that just missed her carotid artery and internal jugular vein following the attack on September 29.
Kelly, who was a sergeant with the Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary at the time, pleaded guilty to attempted murder at the hearing in June.
He and McDowall married in 1985 but she began an affair in 2002 after becoming increasingly unhappy, the court heard.
As a result, the police officer mounted a campaign of harassment against her even after the pair divorced in August last year.
On the day of the attempted murder, he drove his car straight into hers, the court was told.
McDowall knew she had to escape her car but the driver's door was jammed.
Kelly, armed with the saw, then wrenched it open and attacked her for between three and five minutes.
Despite surviving the ordeal, McDowall, a primary school deputy headmistress, has been left permanently disfigured and suffers from numbness in the left side of her face.