Wife stabbed 46 times by cheating husband vows to take him back

A YOUNG woman whose cheating husband was jailed for life after he stabbed her at least 46 times has vowed to stand by him, a court heard.

Michael Barnard, 25, was locked up for 20 years after he was convicted of attempted murder following the horrific attack at their home in Hextable, Kent.

Shannon Barnard, 21, suffered multiple wounds to her limbs and body, including her lungs, liver and bowels, as Barnard repeatedly knifed her, telling her she "had to die".

Fourteen injuries were to her chest and breasts alone, with four penetrating her internal organs, and 10 to her abdomen.

Both her lungs collapsed and she has also been left with substantial and numerous scars which may require skin grafts.

Mrs Barnard spent 17 days in hospital. She later told police she felt "every blow" and thought she would die. Doctors said she was "extremely fortunate" to have survived.

But Maidstone Crown Court in Kent heard on Friday that she has forgiven her husband and plans to start a family with him on his release from prison.

Speaking during Barnard's sentencing hearing for attempted murder, she replied when asked how she saw their future.

She said: "Just to be together and have the life that we both want with each other and have a family."

The court heard she had also been visiting Barnard in prison “on every occasion possible”, and plans to see him twice weekly now he has enhanced status.

She agreed with his barrister David Taylor that he had told her he was sorry and how much he loved her, and when asked if she forgave him, Mrs Barnard replied: "Of course."

The frenzied attack occurred two weeks after she found out about her husband's infidelity during an evening of drinking and consuming the legal high, nitrous oxide.

The court heard he was later accused of raping the other woman but he claimed she had consented to “passionate sex”.

Mrs Barnard was said to have accepted he had simply cheated on her.

But the court heard after Mrs Barnard went to sleep on the sofa one evening, she woke the following morning to find her husband armed with a blade.

Christopher May, prosecuting, said: “He said 'You've got to die' and stabbed her repeatedly to her chest and abdomen, causing a large number of injuries.”

A jury convicted Barnard, of Hextable, of attempted murder but was cleared of the rape charge.

Jailing Barnard, Judge Philip Statman said: "Your wife was extraordinarily lucky to have survived this ordeal.

“The reason why she did so was down to the very quick medical response together with the extraordinary skill of the surgeons who undoubtedly in my judgement saved her life.

"This was a relentless and horrifying assault upon her. It was ferocious, and looking at the photographs of her body and indeed of the scene, one can see the amount of blood that she lost, and significantly the scars that will accompany her throughout her life.

"Each day when your victim gets up in the morning and looks down at her body she can see, and will do for the rest of her life that which you did to her.

"I am completely satisfied that to set about your wife in the way which you did in the matrimonial home constitutes the gravest breach of trust that one could possibly imagine. This is a very serious case of attempted murder."

The couple, said to have married young, were living at the Valley Park caravan site near Swanley in Kent when the horrific stabbing occurred on January 11.