OAP kisses wife outside court after forgiving her for brutal knife attack when she thought he was having an affair
Elizabeth Stokes said she had been feeling stressed when she stabbed her husband, with the pair now hoping to continue their relationship
A PENSIONER who was stabbed 13 times with sewing scissors by his wife has kissed and made up with his elderly wife.
John Stokes was left covered in blood after the attack, with his wife, Elizabeth Stokes, then 82, having been convinced he was having an affair.
But John, 71, kissed wife Elizabeth, 84, as they left the Gloucester Crown Court after successfully having their restraining order lifted.
Mr Stokes told the court he had visited his wife, who was recently released on parole after serving four and a half years in prison, every week since September last year.
He said: "I honestly believe her when she says she is very remorseful about what happened. She realises she made a terrible mistake."
Mr Stokes, from The Reddings in Cheltenham, said he had fully recovered from his injuries.
He said: "We want to carry on with our marriage and our relationship as soon as possible and I honestly believe it will work and things will be better in the future."
Judge Jamie Tabor QC agreed to end the order and allow the couple, under probation supervision, to see each other and perhaps live together again in due course.
He also addressed Mrs Stokes, asking her how she felt she was getting on with her husband.
She said: "We are getting on very well. Better than we have done for a long, long time."
Mrs Stokes had been jailed after being found guilty of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
The then 69-year-old woman stabbed her husband as he came back from the toilet in the early hours of the morning in July 2014.
She had also hidden his keys and phone so he could not get help, with the injured man only helped after his screams were heard by neighbours.
Probation officer Diane Oakley, who has worked with Mrs Stokes during her sentence in Eastwood Park prison, told the court that she had undergone two victim awareness courses while there.
She said Mrs Stokes had struggled after her son was killed in a car crash a year before the stabbing, with the pensioner not feeling supported by her husband.
She also struggled with trust issues as her first husband was "an abuser and a philanderer".
Ms Oakley told the court: "The third problem was a lack of communication. When she challenged him he would either ignore her or laugh at her.
"We have had a meeting with them both when these issues were put on the table. She has also had help from a bereavement counsellor. She feels she perhaps did not work enough through the issues after the death of her son.
"I think even now she finds it difficult to understand why she did what she did to her husband. I think that is something which can still be unpicked."
Mrs Stokes was released from prison last Wednesday and will remain on parole until January 2019.
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