MCCONNELLS A McConnells man is charged with attempted murder after deputies say he stabbed his wife with a sword disguised as a walking cane while she slept Wednesday morning.

Deputies arrested Phillip Demdro Perry, 63, around 1:30 a.m. after receiving calls from 42-year-old Gercene Perry, who said her husband was trying to stab her, according to a York County Sheriff’s report. Dispatchers determined that Perry stabbed his wife in the stomach.

Deputies swarmed the Ginn Road house and found Perry half-way down the road, the report states. He had blood on his clothes and injuries on his left hand and head.

The couple’s daughter let deputies in the house, where they found a trail of blood leading to the master bedroom. There, they found Gercene Perry, who said that while she was asleep in bed, Phillip Perry came into the room with a sword inserted into a walking cane and struck her in a “chopping motion,” the report states.

Gercene Perry said she tried to fight off her husband and managed to hit him in the head with the sword’s sheath, said Trent Faris, Sheriff's Office spokesman.

Gercene Perry said that Phillip Perry stabbed her in the stomach with the sword before he left. Someone else in the home hid the sword in case he came back, the report states. Gercene Perry’s 4-year-old granddaughter was in the house at the time, police say.

Gercene Perry was taken to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, the report states. She was recovering at home Wednesday, said her niece, Nyiesha Freeman.

Freeman, who deputies found holding a knife while standing guard at her aunt's bedroom door, said Phillip Perry has "never been violent or anything like that. It never went that far."

She was unsure where Phillip Perry got the sword that looked like a cane, but said the entire situation was frightening.

During a domestic incident earlier in the week, Freeman said her aunt told Perry that she loved him in a "godly way" but wanted to separate from him because of his problems with alcohol.

Phillip Perry is being held at the York County Detention Center without bond, charged with attempted murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.

According to a separate report, deputies were called to the same home Saturday when Phillip Perry threatened to hurt himself with a kitchen knife because of marital troubles.