A jealous husband hacked his wife’s hair off and chopped at her neck with a meat cleaver before turning the weapon on the family dog in their Deepdale home.
Fiona Edgar, 43, thought her husband was trying to cut her head off as he chopped at her neck with the weapon, a court heard.
Army veteran David Edgar, 52, from Preston, has been jailed for seven and a half years for the attack at the home the couple shared in Tees Street, Deepdale.
Before the attack, Edgar told his adult stepson he was “going to Strangeways” as he searched the house for a suitable weapon to use on his wife.
He later said he cut his wife’s hair off because it was “her pride and joy”.
Jailing him, Judge Robert Altham said: “There was a significant degree of premeditation. You hunted around the house and settled upon what must have been the most ferocious weapon you could find.
Edgar denied causing grievous bodily harm to his wife but was convicted after a trial.
In a victim impact statement, Mrs Edgar said: “At the time I thought he was trying to kill me.
The jury heard on January 2 the couple had been drinking gin when Mrs Edgar started winding her husband up about another man she had been in contact with and her disappointment in their marriage.
She told Edgar a younger man would be able to give her children and said their marriage of ten years “was not as she envisaged”.
Edgar went upstairs and spoke to his son as he searched for a screwdriver to attack his wife. He then went to the kitchen knife drawer and picked up the meat cleaver before grabbing his wife by her hair and forcing her to her knees.
He hacked away at her hair, which she told the court was her pride and joy, and swung the blade at her neck and face, although she was able to protect her face with her hands.
In the confusion, the family dog, a terrier called Ice, bit Mrs Edgar on her leg, and Edgar swung the meat cleaver at the dog, leaving him with a wound which needed stitches and treatment at the vets.
Edgar then washed the meat cleaver and put it back in the kitchen drawer. When it was recovered by police later it was still wet, the court heard.
During the trial at Preston Crown Court, Mrs Edgar was allowed to give evidence wearing a hat as she had shaved off her remaining hair following the attack.
Edgar was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and also pleaded guilty to a charge of animal cruelty.
Judge Altham said: “The violence you used was utterly gratuitous and uncalled for but this was an offence that arose out of a particular set of circumstances.
“She (your wife) was at pains to point out this was not a relationship which was characterised by violence from you.
“The gratuitous degradation of Fiona Edgar, the cutting of her hair which she regarded as her pride and joy, was a particularly degrading action.
He jailed Edgar for seven and a half year for GBH with two months to run concurrently for causing unnecessary suffering to the dog.