10:03am Thursday 22nd July 2010
A Tenby woman found guilty of trying to murder her husband will be sentenced under the Mental Health Act, a court heard today.
Shafia Sofan, aged 50, appeared before Mr Justice Treacy at Swansea crown court today expecting to be sentenced.
But the judge was told that it had proved impossible to find an available bed within a secure psychiatric unit.
Mr Justice Treacy said he was obliged to identify the institution where Sofan would be held and treated and until he was told where that would be he would have to postpone sentencing.
Sofan will be sentenced at Chester crown court in late August, by when a bed would have been identified.
Sofan will be held in custody until then.
Sofan had hit her husband Mohammed Abdul Sofan twice on the head with a machete like weapon as he watched tv while eating a slice of bread of butter.
A jury heard how she sat quietly next to her husband and, without saying a single word, walked into the kitchen and took hold of a botie, a 25 inch long blade used to cut vegetables and meat.
She returned to the living room and hit him twice over the head. Despite bleeding profusely, he managed to get her out of their home in The Maudlins, Broadwell Hayes, Tenby.
But while he was on the telephone to an emergency services operator he saw her trying to get back inside by chopping down the back door with a hand axe.
Huw Rees, prosecuting, told Swansea crown court the attack came without any warning and had not followed a row of any kind.
Mr Sofan, a waiter, told the court that during the attack she had told him she was going to kill him.
After the verdict Mr Justice Treacy said Sofan had already been examined by two psychiatrists and he had read their reports. "There is a background of mental illness in this case and I have to give careful consideration to it," he added.
The couple had been married for 32 years and had five children. Sofan admitted hitting her husband with the botie but said she had not intended to kill him.
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