AN 82-year-old man accused of stabbing his wife to death at their Studley home was too ill in a prison hospital wing to attend a court hearing, a judge has heard.
Ronald Mowbray, who has been charged with the murder of his 80-year-old wife Ann, had been due to attend a plea and trial preparation hearing at Warwick Crown Court.
He was charged after the police were called to the couple’s home in Allendale Crescent, Studley, on the morning of February 17 and found the body of Mrs Mowbray, who it was said had been stabbed a number of times.
Mowbray was to have taken part in the hearing via a video link from HMP Hewell, where he has been held on remand.
But his barrister Rebecca Wade said Mowbray, whose mental health she said had ‘rapidly declined,’ was on the prison’s hospital wing and ‘too unwell to attend on the link.’
Prosecutor Peter Grieves-Smith suggested that in view of Mowbray’s age and condition, a prison environment ‘is not the appropriate place for him to be.’
Told that he was to be seen by psychiatrist Dr Tom Clark, Judge Andrew Lockhart QC observed: “It is absolutely imperative if this man is in the wrong place, that he is got to the right place.”
Mowbray’s trial is expected to last up to 10 days and is set to begin on July 20.
Adjourning the case for trial, he remanded Mowbray in custody, which he said would either be at the prison or at a psychiatric unit, subject to the psychiatrist’s assessment.
