Australian man jailed for seven years for stabbing wife following poisoning delusions

A Melbourne resident who stabbed his wife in the neck 10 times has been jailed for seven years. However, he may serve only four years, after a judge decided he was suffering from delusions. Father of one, Sukhwinder Sandhu, 39, crept up behind his wife Ramandeep Kharod in their bedroom before grabbing her by her pony tail and attacking her with a knife on 4 February 2015.

Sandhu believed Kharod was trying to poison him with tablets. They lived in the town of Tarneit, l25km from Melbourne. Sandhu told his housemates that Kharod had made him "mental" as they pulled him from her body. Kharod suffered a lacerated jugular vein in the attack.

She survived but was left physically and emotionally damaged, stated Victorian Supreme Court Justice Michael Croucher when sentencing Sandhu on 29 August.

Prior to the stabbing, Sandhu had attacked Kharod on a number of other occasions, according to reporting in the Herald Sun newspaper. Sandhu kicked her in the stomach when she was pregnant with their daughter.

He also slapped her face while she was holding their child. Moreover, the Supreme Court heard, during other attacks Sandhu slapped Kharod, pulled her hair and punched her. The stabbing came after Kharod said she wanted the family to move to Queensland so that she could start a new job as a hairdresser.

Sandhu also raided the couple's joint bank account. He transferred their Aus$100,000 in savings to himself, leaving Kharod with just Aus$50. Justice Croucher said he accepted Sandhu suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, and that he had been experiencing delusional thoughts and hallucinations when he attacked Kharod.

He also accepted Sandhu's apology for the stabbing and said that he was unlikely to reoffend. Sandhu pleaded guilty to attempted murder. He is likely to be deported at the end of his sentence.