A RETIRED lollipop girl smothered her ‘bullying’ husband of 53 years with a pillow after he smiled at her throughout a chat about their funds.
Janet Dunn, 73, “snapped” and pressed a pillow towards 81-year-old husband Anthony’s face of their bed room, at their dwelling in Ponteland, Northumberland, a courtroom heard.
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The lady then fled the scene and made a critical try to kill herself.
The “quiet and shy” great-grandmother was jailed for 5 years and three months at Newcastle Crown Court docket after she admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished duty.
Peter Glenser QC, prosecuting, mentioned Mr Dunn was identified to make grand monetary gestures which not often got here off and the couple would borrow cash from household which they had been unable to repay.
They even confronted having their dwelling of 36 years repossessed.
Choose Paul Sloan, sentencing, mentioned on the morning that she smothered him, it arose that but once more they must ask for a mortgage from a daughter.
He mentioned: “He merely smiled, telling you to go forward.
“You interpreted that smile as demonstrating a totally uncaring and unfeeling perspective.
“After a long time of compliance and submission, it was the smile that lastly precipitated you to snap.
“The anger and frustration you had repressed for years boiled over.”
Psychiatrists agreed that, on the time, Dunn was in a depressive episode and anxious, inflicting her judgment to be considerably impaired.
After smothering her husband, Dunn drove to a close-by lake and tried to kill herself in her Mercedes however was seen, slumped and unconscious, by a dog-walker who raised the alarm, the courtroom heard.
The couple had three daughters and their center youngster died final yr aged 47.
Mr Glenser mentioned the husband was quick-tempered and preferred to be accountable for the whole lot.
All through their marriage, he had been verbally abusive and mentioned she could be left “treading on eggshells”.
Psychiatric consultants agreed their relationship was considered one of “coercive management”, the barrister added.
Their two surviving daughters offered sufferer statements however they weren’t learn out in courtroom.
John Elvidge QC, defending, mentioned: “That is a rare case.
“The details and the background which were uncovered are extraordinarily unhappy and distressing.”
He added: “Despite all of it, Mrs Dunn did love her husband.
“She is desperately sorry for taking his life and for what she has executed to their daughters.”
