Pensioner jailed for repeatedly stabbing care home worker in ‘frenzied assault’

An elderly care home resident who repeatedly stabbed a member of staff has been jailed for 13 years and three months.

Pensioner Fred Butcher was armed with a knife and a cleaver when he inflicted serious injuries on the woman in the unprovoked attack at the residential care home on Marsham Street in Maidstone, Kent, on January 26, 2017.

Butcher, now 80, pleaded guilty to attempted murder in March last year.

He was jailed at Maidstone Crown Court on Friday, Kent Police said.

A visitor saw the attack and dragged him away, sitting on top of him until police arrived. Butcher (pictured) told officers he had meant to kill his victim, but had not managed to do it.

Detective Inspector Tristan Kluibenschadl, from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: “This was a frenzied assault which was also wholly unprovoked.

“Butcher had every intention of killing a woman, simply because he harboured resentment, over some trivial matters at the home.

“Had it not been for the brave intervention of a man who witnessed the attack, I have no doubt Butcher’s actions would have had fatal consequences.

“The victim has undergone an extremely traumatic and life-changing experience which will no doubt continue to have long-term physical and mental scars.

“Butcher has shown callous disregard for the trauma and distress he has caused, not only to the victim, but to the many elderly and vulnerable people, who were within a short distance of Butcher as the attack was taking place.”

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