Woman jailed for stabbing husband eight times while he slept

A woman who stabbed her husband eight times while he slept in their bed has been handed a 4½ year prison sentence.

Tamytha Lee Hopkins (49) will spend half her the term in custody and the remainder on supervised licence on her release from jail.

However, Belfast Crown Court heard that at the end of her sentence the mother-of-two may be deported to the US, where she was born.

David Russell, prosecuting, said Hopkins originally faced a charge of attempting to murder Stephen Hopkins.

But he told Belfast Recorder Judge David McFarland that “substantial medical issues were explored” surrounding the defendant and in February this year she pleaded guilty on re-arraignment to a second charge of wounding her husband with intent to cause him grievous bodily injury.

Mr Russell said that on November 24th, 2017, police received a 999 from the couple’s 13-year-old son about a stabbing at the family home in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim.

“On arrival police noted Mr Hopkins in an upstairs bedroom of the property on top of the accused and was restraining her,” said the prosecutor. “It was obvious to the police that Mr Hopkins had a number of stab wounds to his upper torso and was bleeding heavily.”

Three knives

During a search of the upstairs, police recovered three knives — including a 6in kitchen knife and a Sushi knife.

Mr Hopkins told police that it had been a normal day in the family home and there was only a minor disagreement about a peppermint oil burner.

At 8pm he took his son up to bed and his wife was in their bed reading. Around 10.40 pm he went to bed and she went downstairs to read her book.

He told police he fell asleep and was woken when he was being repeatedly stabbed. He was later treated for “superficial” knife wounds to his shoulder, neck and behind his ear.

Mr Russell said there were a number of aggravating features: the use of knives, the victim was vulnerable as he was asleep, there was a “degree of pre-planning as three knives were in the bedroom“‘and the presence of their son “who witnessed some of the incident”.

Estranged

Gavan Duffy QC, defending, said the couple met in the US, where Hopkins had a daughter from a previous relationship who is now estranged from her. Their son was born in the US in 2003 and the couple moved to Northern Ireland in 2009 and there had been no previous domestic incidents in the family home.

Mr Duffy told the court that a number of medical experts who had examined Hopkins said that she had a complex psychological history dating back to her childhood. He said she had expressed remorse for the knife attack, adding: “These actions were totally out of character and an aberration.”

Judge McFarland said it was difficult to “pinpoint a reason” as to why the attack had happened in the first place but noted the difficult and complex issues surrounding the accused’s mental health.