Marcelina Tomusiak, from Poland, stabbed her husband with a kitchen knife after he let down the air in her tyres in a prank-gone-wrong
A mother-of-three who stabbed her husband with a kitchen knife after he let down the air in her tyres in a prank-gone-wrong has been jailed for two years.
Marcelina Tomusiak, from Poland, flew into a rage after she saw her husband Jacob Tomusiak deflating her tyres ahead of a planned day trip with her three children.
Mr Tomusiak was filming his wife to capture her reaction to the prank in Aldershot, Hampshire, in September 2019.
Furious Tomusiak grabbed a kitchen knife in a bid to puncture the tyres on her husband’s grey Lexus in retaliation – but the flimsy blade snapped.
She went inside their home to get a ‘longer and sharper’ kitchen knife before launching at him, ‘swinging it violently towards him on a number of occasions’, Winchester Crown Court heard.
Mr Tomusiak’s hand required surgery following the attack, which left him unable to work.
Tomusiak was convicted of wounding without intent and was sentenced to two years in prison.
Judge William Mousley QC told the defendant, who appeared in court with a Polish interpreter: ‘You were angry and frustrated and as he [your husband] walked alongside the passenger side of his car, he said something.
‘You then looked at him and launched yourself at him, with the knife, holding it above your head in your right hand and swinging it violently towards him on a number of occasions.
‘He then turned and was seen to react in pain and arch his back. He pushed you to the ground and you, at that stage, specifically cut his hand with the knife that you were continuing to swing in his direction.’
Neighbours rushed to Mr Tomusiak’s aid while his wife returned in to the house.
There she was arrested by police, who said she looked ‘dazed’.
Prosecuting, Jonathan Underhill said Tomusiak had ‘higher culpability’ for the crime because she had ‘deliberately’ armed herself with the knife.
He said: ‘This was a fast moving incident.
‘This was the second knife obtained by the defendant. She went back in having broken the first and she chose the largest one.’
In a victim impact statement, Mr Tomusiak said the couple faced having their children taken away by social services following the assault.
The former self-employed private hire driver said he had been forced to sell his car – which he bought for his business – after only four months of running the firm.
Tomusiak went inside their home to get a ‘longer and sharper’ kitchen knife before launching at him, ‘swinging it violently towards him on a number of occasions’, Winchester Crown Court (pictured) heard
He said: ‘I could only use my left hand and only my middle fingers were mobile. I needed somebody to help me to have a shower or a bath.
‘After the attack I had nothing else to do but [take] universal credit which could barely cover my living expenses.
‘Because of Marcelina’s “prank” my family standards have dropped significantly.’
Following her conviction, Tomusiak told probation services that she had a difficult relationship with her husband and they were planning on getting divorced.
Rupert Hallowes, defending Tomusiak, said the defendant had been willing to admit the lesser charge of wounding without intent.
She was acquitted of wounding with intent in court.
Tomusiak had been forced to wait until this January for a new trial after her first trial was pushed back due to lockdown in March last year.
Tomusiak – of Selby Walk, Basingstoke – was convicted of one count of section 20 wounding without intent following a trial at Winchester Crown Court.
During her sentencing on Friday, Judge Mousley said: ‘There are factors here of higher and lower culpability.
‘It seems to me that I will be sentencing on the basis that the knife was not originally intended to be used upon her husband and that there was teasing or certainly behaviour which would have served to wind her up further.
‘Whether it is right to call that provocation, or a greater degree of provocation, may be overstating it but the incident took place in those circumstances and so I would sentence on the basis that there was a lack of premeditation.’
Judge Mousley said the injuries to Mr Tomusiak’s hand, which required surgery, was the most serious and he could not suspend the wife’s jail term.
Tomusiak was handed two years in prison. This was reduced because of the four months she had spent in custody on remand and the 318 days she had spent on a qualifying curfew.