Italian court acquits man who tried to strangle wife while asleep

A court in Italy has acquitted a man who tried to strangle his wife while asleep, ruling that he was suffering from a sleep disorder, media reported Thursday.

His wife had to bite him to wake him and stop the attack, which happened in January 2021, the court in Brescia, in Italy's northern Lombardy region heard.

"I didn't mean to, I was sleeping," the man, in his 60s, told the court repeatedly.

He thought he was struggling against burglars who had already attacked his wife and son, he said.

Once he realised what he had done, he threw himself out of the window of their third-floor flat in the village of Braone, seriously injuring himself.

The couple are now separated, but his wife told the court that she had never suffered any violence from him. She was not a plaintiff in the case.

Experts told the court that the husband's account was plausible and prosecutors agreed, arguing that he was not conscious at the time of the attack.