A WESTON pensioner who stabbed his wife repeatedly is to be detained indefinitely in a secure hospital.

Thomas Cameron, aged 83, attacked his 80-year-old wife Doreen at their home in Clarence Court, Clarence Road North in February, but a judge at Bristol Crown Court ruled he was not fit to stand trial due to his mental state.

At a hearing at the court on Monday the judge decreed that the former paratrooper, who suffers from vascular dementia, remain in the secure hospital he has been in since March indefinitely.

Mrs Cameron woke up in the couple’s bedroom in the early hours of February 6 to find the lights on and her husband standing over her with a knife in his hand.

After telling her: ‘I’m going to kill you’, he stabbed her repeatedly in the neck, hands and face, leaving her with a 5cm long laceration on her neck that narrowly missed an important artery and other cuts, while he also broke her false teeth.

After she managed to escape, his wife fled their home and alerted their neighbours, who phoned for the police and ambulance.

Cameron, who has sight and hearing problems and also suffers from multiple sclerosis, was subsequently charged with attempted murder.

Due to his condition, which meant he was too ill to enter a plea, stand trial or attend any hearing, the Recorder of Bristol His Honour Judge Neil Ford QC ruled he was not fit to stand trial.

With Cameron unable to appear, a special hearing was held to determine whether he had carried out the attack, as opposed to whether he was guilty of the charge, with a jury deeming he had.