Telford man who put woman in coma in ferocious meat cleaver attack jailed for 18 years
A man who left a woman with life-changing injuries after striking her with a meat cleaver 32 times has been jailed for more than 18 years.
Lee Sargent, aged 47, carried out a ferocious attack on his victim at his home in Culmington, Stirchley in August last year, while drunk. He left his victim close to death and put her in a coma for 11 days, Stafford Crown Court heard on Wednesday.
Sargent had admitted attacking the woman on August 1, and had also pleaded guilty to assaulting an emergency worker during the incident and an earlier charge of child neglect, the court was told.
Prosecution counsel, Mr Patrick Sullivan, told the court that Sargent’s attack the woman followed an earlier incident in June in which her child had been taken into custody after the pair were found drunk in Telford.
He told the court that on August 1, police received a 999 call at around 8pm but that operators could only hear “muffled grunts and cutting sounds”.
Following a trace, officers were despatched to the address in Stirchley.
But Mr Sullivan said before they arrived, a driver delivering vodka and Coke had called at the address, and Sargent had opened the door covered “head to toe in blood”.
Mr Sullivan said: “Police then arrived and he was in the same state when he opened door; covered in blood, blood dripping down his left arm and he had a cut wrist.”
He said officers followed him into the bedroom, which was “in darkness”.
