A READING MAN set himself on fire after a heroic young boy prevented him from murdering his partner with a knife in the early hours of the morning.

The woman was left with severe injuries including an open wound to her chest and neck, slash injuries on her arm, and defensive injuries on her fingers.

It took an intervention from a young boy to get Patrick Benjamin, of Lulworth Close, Reading, to stop his crazed early morning attack in December 2020.

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Benjamin then fled the scene and set himself alight at a car park before passing motorists put out the blaze.

Following a trial in September 2021, Patrick Benjamin, of Lulworth Close, Reading, was convicted of attempted murder.

The incident occurred on December 10, 2020 after Benjamin and his partner, who he had been together with for ten years, had been arguing.

He told her he was going to leave her and so she refused to let him sleep in their bed despite Benjamin’s repeated requests to do so.

 

Patrick Benjamin

Patrick Benjamin

 

At 6am, the woman was lying on her stomach with her head on pillow when Benjamin got on top of her and put his hands around her.

He started cutting her chest and neck with a stanley knife, causing injuries that would put her in hospital for more than a month.

The woman’s screaming woke up a boy who was present in the house at the time of the incident.

His brave intervention prevented Benjamin from carrying on his attack and forced him to flee the scene, prosecutor Charles Ward-Jackson told Reading Crown Court.

The boy called a relative who then alerted the emergency services. The woman was taken to hospital for treatment.

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Benjamin drove to a car park before setting himself alight. He survived the horrifying suicide attempt after passing motorists stopped to put out the blaze.

He was himself taken to hospital where he spent a considerable time in a coma before continuing his treatment for two months.

Gavin Holme, defending, said Benjamin, 43, was remorseful for his actions.

The barrister said Benjamin had no previous convictions and that it was “difficult to understand why this happened.”

The court heard how Benjamin lost his job at the start of the pandemic and was preparing for a new job, living in a small flat of six people.

“There was a build-up of pressure and stress”, Mr Holme said.

“Perhaps that gives a clue as to why a man of previous good character who is hard-working would do something that is so out of character.”

Benjamin, who was watching the hearing from HMP Bullingdon, appeared to wipe away tears during the proceedings.

Her Honour Judge Norton, sentencing, said this case was “unusual and extremely sad.”

She said the “defenceless” woman had been having nightmares in the wake of the incident.

“Like her, you will have psychological and physical scars for the rest of your life.

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“The difference is yours are self-inflicted”, Judge Norton added.

Benjamin was handed a thirteen-year prison sentence for attempted murder.

He will serve two-thirds of this sentence in custody before release.

The Reading man was sentenced at Reading Crown Court on Wednesday, February 23.