KITCHENER — A "gentle and empathetic" 67-year-old woman plunged a butcher knife into her husband's ear canal while he slept.

The blade went three inches deep and severed an artery.

"The attack was unprovoked and there were no warning signs that this would occur," according to an agreed statement of facts.

Claire Cote was initially charged with attempted murder, but on Tuesday a judge declared her not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder and she walked out of court a free woman. But she still needs to prove to a board that she doesn't pose a risk.

Cote told the judge she has transformed herself through therapy and can now keep her emotions in check.

After she left the courtroom, victim Charles Figueiredo — Cote's common-law husband of 39 years — gave her a big hug. He forgives her and wants her back.

"I do not have, or have had, any fear for my safety or security from Claire," Figueiredo, 64, wrote in a victim impact statement. "Claire has always been a gentle and empathetic soul and has abhorred violence of any kind."

Figueiredo concluded the attack "had everything to do with a severe mental health crisis." And he said that after talking to her doctor, he is confident her mental health issues have been "alleviated."

Last Sept. 2 at 11:30 p.m., Cote and Figueiredo went to bed together in their home on Northumberland Street, in a rural area in North Dumfries Township between Ayr and Roseville.

At 5:15 a.m., while Figueiredo was sleeping, Cote "impaled a nine-inch butcher knife in his right ear," according to the agreed facts read out by Crown prosecutor Jane Young.

"Figueiredo felt blood pouring out his ear and sat up to see Cote at the end of the bed holding the knife in her hand."

He wrestled the knife from her, cutting his hand.

"Cote stated several times, 'This has to end,'" Young said.

She then went downstairs. Figueiredo called 911 and found his wife sitting in the living room.

When police arrived, Cote was still sitting in the living room.

"She had her eyes closed and her head back," Young said. "She had blood on her face, hands and the front of her shirt was soaked in blood."

In an interview with police, "Cote was unemotional and stated that she believed the relationship was over."

Cote was not injured. Figueiredo needed surgery to stop the bleeding from the severed artery.

What prompted the attack?

"She had been experiencing sleep deprivation last summer for three to four months leading up to this," defence lawyer Stephanie Krug said in an interview.

"They were winding down a home business and heading into retirement, and she developed this fixation that they would not have enough finances to take them into their retirement and beyond. And it consumed her."

The official diagnosis: psychosis and major depressive disorder.

The attempted murder charge was dropped on Tuesday, and Cote pleaded not guilty to aggravated assault.

After reading a psychiatrist's report, Justice Scott Latimer ruled Cote was incapable of knowing the attack was morally wrong and found her not criminally responsible.

Addressing the judge, Cote called her attack "shocking and abhorrent." She said she was driven by delusions, fear, confusion and desperation, and now feels shame, guilt, sorrow and regret.

"I am more sorry than you will ever know," Cote said, dabbing tears from her eyes.

Cote called her husband a loving man. "I betrayed that love and trust."

Cote, now 68, said cognitive behavioural therapy has transformed her. "I am more in control of my emotions now than I've ever been in my life."

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Cote, who tried to take her own life due to financial worries in 2010, said her recovery is "ongoing."

After stabbing her husband, Cote spent three weeks in jail.

"It was hell," Krug said. "She's a highly intelligent woman and so I think that really rocked her world to have such a fall from this quiet, intellectual life."

Within 45 days, Cote will appear in front of the Ontario Review Board, which will determine if she poses a risk.

"I anticipate that they will allow her to remain in the community subject to certain terms," Krug said. "And then they will review her case on a periodic basis.

"Ultimately, if she continues to do well and continues to remain stable, it's likely they will issue an absolute discharge at some point, which means she's completely free of all supervision and restrictions."

If the board rules she poses a risk, it can order her held in a psychiatric hospital.

Krug doubts that will happen.

"I think she corrected her (problems) fairly quickly. She's quite committed to making sure that there are no future slips."

Had she been found criminally responsible of attempted murder, Cote would have been looking at many years in prison.

"The Crown has been really good all along because who wants to see a 68-year-old woman spend time in jail?" Krug said.

Cote remains on bail and a curfew, and is not allowed to move back in with her husband. Krug hopes bail will be altered to allow her in their home with a third party present.

Her husband wants her back home.

"I have been negatively affected by the long separation from Claire," Figueiredo wrote in his impact statement. "This has been very difficult because our lives together over these years have been overwhelmingly defined by love, joy and fun."

Immediately after the attack, Cote's husband came to her defence.

"Remarkably, even in that moment when the police arrived and they were slapping the handcuffs on her, Charles was saying to the police, 'You need to understand that she hasn't been well lately,'" Krug said.

"That's what I find the most remarkable part of this — his capacity for understanding and forgiveness."