Husband not guilty of murdering wife in lockdown
 

A man has been found not guilty of murdering his wife, just days into the first national Covid lockdown.

Anthony Williams, 70, said he "just flipped" and strangled his wife Ruth at their home in Cwmbran, Torfaen.

Williams, of Brynglas, Hollybush, denied murdering the 67-year-old in March 2020, but admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility.

A jury at Swansea Crown Court took just over five hours to find the retired factory worker not guilty of murder.

Williams will be sentenced on Thursday.

The trial heard Williams strangled his wife of 46 years on the morning of 28 March after an argument.

The defence said Williams had not slept properly for several nights because of worries over coronavirus, money and his health.

He told police he had "choked the living daylights" out of Mrs Williams.

Williams had been suffering from depression and anxiety in the weeks before he killed his wife, the jury heard, and "just snapped" and attacked her when she told him to "get over it".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-56071168

he attack began in the bedroom of their house at about 07:00 but continued downstairs after Mrs Williams fled.

She was found slumped in the porch of their home with a pair of keys in her hand, which the prosecution said showed she was trying to escape.

After the attack, Williams went to his next door neighbours' house and told them his wife was dead, telling them to "call the police, I've killed her".

not guilty...okay

yeah, i couldn't believe the verdict either

Jesus.hes done well to dodge covid since then..perhaps prisons are the safest places these days.

A refreshing change from 'sex game gone wrong' which usually is used (and accepted) when men strangle women. But crappy all the same. RIP:(

"He told police he had "choked the living daylights" out of Mrs Williams."


|Im no detective but i feel this was a clue?

:think:

yeah I mean the standard would have been 'I had no idea how much force I was exerting' :facepalm:

Not I knew I was killing her

I feel mental health is so over abused as an excuse now as well

Ffs, even if they accepted the mental health problems when considering sentencing, how can it possibly be anything other than murder? You might as well say that murder doesn't exist, because truly "cold, calculated" killings are EXTREMELY rare. The distinction should be purely in the intent at the time... e.g. someone gets punched, falls and hits their head and dies - you could call that manslaughter. But wrapping your hands round someone's throat and squeazing until they're dead? How can that be anything but murder.

...I was going to comment on this earlier and then held back to think about it...I don’t know if manslaughter would be the same or equal to ‘diminished’ responsibility and is that’s what they’re saying and that he’s actually been charged with manslaughter...none of it felt quite clear so was going to see what I could Google, if anything...

...this is also quite odd...

‘The court also head from Williams' daughter Emma, who said she told her father she feared he was "spiralling out of control".
Ms Williams said her father told her he thought he was going to "lose the house and not be able to pay the bills" despite having no mortgage on their house and £148,000 in savings.’

...I mean, diminished responsibility could attempted to be claimed ...but surely manslaughter couldn’t be because of the force involved in strangling someone to their death...it could never have been an ‘accidental death’....

As far as I knew it, manslaughter was killing someone by accident.

The fact he tried it, she got away and fled downstairs and he caught up with her to finish the job yet it's diminished responsibility? :umm2:

The Arthur Fowler moment will be different in every scenario.

Unfortunatly he still had the strength, and obviously enough.

Will the death be put down to covid?

I dont wish to make light of this..it is a tragic tale.

But I've just watched old women cuddling rag dolls for comfort during lockdown on the one show.


Nobody should be judged during these times..everyone can crack in the end.

We were not there, so we shouldn't judge on this tragic life story

Yeah bit of a difference between cuddling a doll and strangling your wife to death.

All relevent to mental health.
An old woman missing hugs from her grandkids is a lot different to an old man losing it all. FACT

But..factor in the multitude of differing human natures and the FACT its all down to the mental strain of covid.!?

then it can all be put in the same category.

Maybe. Doesn't sound very likely when he claimed to be scared of losing the house, but the mortgage is paid off and had a fortune in the bank. :think:

Parm he was like 2 days in, he cracked pretty fast

To be fair, anxiety is a strange beast and I have seen people with extreme "finances related" anxiety even though their financial situation is perfectly secure. People can and do indeed snap for the strangest of reasons. I just don't think it means he didn't murder her. Like I said you could even factor these things into sentencing but... the charge itself here should have been murder.

Again not to make excuses for him but I'd say for many people that first week of full lockdown was the worst, mental health wise. For many the strain has increased over time, for others that initial chaos and uncertainty was worse. Again though I highly doubt the issues weren't already there and very close to the surface. It may have been the final nudge over the edge but he didn't go from "sweet old man" to wife killer in 2 days, I agree.

..he said that he hadn’t coped well since his retirement a year earlier, he’d felt ok when he was working...so yeah, I think for sure, poor mental health...and the anxieties and depression/poor sleeping etc had been going on for weeks, so possibly before the lockdown because he was such a worrier and didn’t know if their finances in particular would be ok...was a man struggling and he and his wife didn’t discuss any of his anxieties....but it’s still murder and an incredible ruling to be anything else...

..Olga Freeman who took the life of her disabled son in August last year, we had a thread about that...she’s just been found guilty of manslaughter and detained in hospital indefinitely...a possible indication of a similar type sentencing ...

Plus strangulation and choking is one of the most cold heartless ways to kill someone, they literally wait until the person stops breathing / stops struggling it's similar to smothering someone with a pillow , which is obvious they mean to kill the person.

Absolutely ridiculous sentencing and I can’t believe the amount of people I’ve seen jumping to the defence of the man on social media.

I would say I was surprised but I'd be lying...........

The coverage of stuff like this is always pandering to the men who commit these horrific crimes, a man murder his wife and children and then commits suicide and the papers are full of what a great guy he was, how the community loved him etc, the victims are almost forgotten