Pensioner jailed for repeatedly stabbing care home staff member
Fred Butcher, 80, pleaded guilty to attempted murder.
![](https://www.shropshirestar.com/resizer/v2/O7MMLEFALVGPNNQ64CSIHFPS3E.jpg?auth=fb9dd145ed2a3b4df564c2ff1995519d9bad1ebd16971ecd7b918301957ee806&width=300&height=225)
An elderly care home resident who repeatedly stabbed a member of staff has been jailed for 13 years and three months.
Pensioner Fred Butcher was armed with a knife and a cleaver when he inflicted serious injuries on the woman in the unprovoked attack at the home in Maidstone, Kent, on January 26, 2017.
Butcher, now 80, pleaded guilty to attempted murder in March last year. He was jailed at Maidstone Crown Court on Friday, Kent Police said.
![Fred Butcher was jailed for attempted murder (Kent Police/PA)](http://content.assets.pressassociation.io/2018/03/23175322/5cf5761d-1b07-4f42-b5ce-045fb281e0ca.jpg)
Detective Inspector Tristan Kluibenschadl, from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: “This was a frenzied assault which was also wholly unprovoked.
“Butcher had every intention of killing a woman, simply because he harboured resentment, over some trivial matters at the home.
“Had it not been for the brave intervention of a man who witnessed the attack, I have no doubt Butcher’s actions would have had fatal consequences.
![Fred Butcher also used this knife. Picture: Kent Police](http://content.assets.pressassociation.io/2018/03/23175539/3b994a13-ad1b-42af-9970-6d95a4e28b3e.jpg)
“Butcher has shown callous disregard for the trauma and distress he has caused, not only to the victim, but to the many elderly and vulnerable people, who were within a short distance of Butcher as the attack was taking place.”