A 65-YEAR-OLD man is facing a possible life sentence after a jury found him guilty of attempting to murder his estranged wife.

In March last year Philip Turner launched a series of brutal attacks on his 66-year-old wife Patricia when she visited their former matrimonial home in Edgerton Green, Huddersfield, in order to go on a regular shopping trip with him.

Although Mrs Turner had started divorce proceedings after moving out of the house in 2002 the couple, who had been married since 1967, continued to helped each other out.

But during a week-long trial at Bradford Crown Court it emerged that Turner had a growing resentment about the divorce proceedings. Diary extracts revealed his previous thoughts about killing his wife.

After attacking his wife with a chair in the kitchen of the house Turner then struck her over the head with a rounders bat as she tried to flee.

He then tried to strangle her before dragging into the garage of the property where she was subjected to further blows with the bat during a nine-hour ordeal.

Turner, who had no previous convictions, made threats to kill his wife and "torch the house".

At one point he took their grandchildren's paper-round bags from her car and left them outside her home so as not to arouse suspicion and he later drove her car from outside his own home and parked it half a mile away.

The court heard how Mrs Turner talked about the grandchildren as a way of persuading her husband not to carry out his threats. He finally telephoned the emergency services.

During a 999 call played to the jury he admitted to the operator that he had tried to kill his wife and explained that he was going to hand himself in at the police station.

Mrs Turner suffered a broken nose, wounds to her head and the loss of five teeth.

She spent 15 days in hospital and needed three units of blood.

In a diary entry made on the day of the attack Turner wrote: "Pat came up at 9.45. Had a row. Snapped. Couldn't carry out what was going to do. Life now destroyed."

Turner, who did not give evidence, had denied the attempted murder charge on the basis that he had not intended to kill his wife.

But after more than four hours of deliberation the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict.

They also found Turner guilty on the related charges of false imprisonment and making threats to kill.

Following the guilty verdicts the Honorary Recorder of Bradford Judge Stephen Gullick said he would have to consider the danger posed by Turner to the public, including his wife.

He adjourned his sentence hearing so that Turner could be assessed by a court-appointed psychiatrist and a probation officer.

But he warned Turner that he had been convicted of an extremely serious offence.

"Count one (attempted murder) in particular carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and I have to consider whether that is appropriate in your case," he told Turner.

"If I do I will have to fix a minimum term. If I decide not to impose a life sentence you can expect to receive a sentence between nine and 11 years."

No date for the sentence hearing has been fixed, but it may take up to two months to prepare the necessary reports.