Man jailed for trying to kill ex-wife in street

A man convicted of attempted murder after he deliberately crashed his car into his ex-wife on a Hull street before beating her with a baseball bat has been jailed for 24 years.

Laurance Worvill's car mounted the pavement and hit the woman outside a shop on Chanterlands Avenue in Hull in May 2025. He then got out of the car and beat her with the bat.

He was overpowered by a number of passers-by who detained him until police arrived. The woman suffered serious head and leg injuries.

Worvill, 51, of Spring Bank West in Hull, denied the charge, but was found guilty following a three-day trial at Hull Crown Court last month.

The court heard he blamed his wife for the end of their marriage after he was jailed for assaulting her.

After being released from prison, he broke into a Royal Mail depot where he used to work and stole information that revealed where his ex-wife was living.

He then bought a baseball bat and drove up and down Chanterlands Avenue looking for her.

In a statement read to the court, the victim said the attack had left her with mental and physical scars.

She said she had a fear of the sound of speeding cars which she found "scary and raises my anxiety levels through the roof".

"I'm in constant fear of what if," she said.

Passing sentence at Hull Crown Court, Judge John Thackray KC described CCTV footage of the attack as "shocking to watch".

"But for the intervention of those brave men who intervened, you would have continued the attack and almost certainly have killed her," the judge said.

He added that, during the trial, Worvill had shown "not a jot of remorse".

"You had the astonishing temerity to try and justify your attack by complaining that your wife had not looked after your koi carp whilst you were in prison for attacking her," Judge Thackray said.

"You blamed her for the break up of the marriage that you had caused because of your violence towards her."

As well as the prison sentence, he was given an extended licence of four years and will serve at least two thirds of the sentence in prison.

Speaking on the steps of the court after the sentencing, Det Insp Helen Collier described Worvill as a "cruel and calculating man".

"Worvill is a dangerous, conniving individual who subjected a woman to an unimaginable attack which left her spending days in hospital," she added.

"By no means does this result today take away the trauma and the pain the woman will continue to face on a daily basis as she tries to navigate through life on what will be a long journey of physical and emotional recovery."

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