A mum-of-two brutally killed her husband after hearing allegations he had sexually abused her son and daughter.
Corinna Smith mixed sugar with boiling water and poured it over 80-year-old Michael Bains while he slept.
After hearing from her daughter that her partner had preyed on her children when they were much younger, Smith fetched a bucket from her garden, boiled two kettles of water and mixed it with three bags of sugar.
The 59-year-old was described as being "livid" and "fuming" as she went into the downstairs bedroom she shared with her husband in Neston and poured the boiling liquid over him while he slept.
Smith was previously known as Baines but is now referred to as Smith on the court lists, the Liverpool Echo reports.
Prosecutors said the sugar with the water "made the liquid more viscous, thicker and stickier, so that it stays on the skin and causes greater damage and that is exactly what it did."
Mr Baines suffered significant burns to 36% of his body and was taken to Whiston Hospital Burns Unit where he was stabilised in the critical care unit and later the high dependency unit.
He was in hospital for five weeks and needed repeated surgery and skin grafts, but he died a month later, on August 18, last year.
Today, at Chester Crown Court, it was heard how Ms Smith was incensed following claims made by her daughter on July 14, last year, that Mr Baines had sexually abused her and her brother "for many years when they were children."
In 2007, her son Craig took his own life after being troubled before his death and going to prison for an assault.
He had told his mum the man he attacked was a "paedophile" who had "touched him sexually", and following the allegation made by her daughter, Smith took vengeance.
Judge Amanda Yip, QC, said: "You found it difficult to take everything in, but made the connection between what Craig had said the day before he died and what your daughter was telling you.
"You were understandably very upset.
"You were described as being livid and fuming at the thought of what had been done to your children."
Prosecutors said: "We cannot and do not say whether these allegations made about Michael Baines are true or not....but that is not the issue for you in this case because the prosecution certainly accept that these allegations were made, and that Corinna Baines believed them to be true at the time that she caused the fatal injuries to Michael."
On Friday afternoon, Smith, of Highfield Road, Neston, was sentenced to life imprisonment, and ordered to serve a minimum of 12 years behind bars before parole can be considered.
She had contested a trial, arguing manslaughter due to loss of control, but a jury found her guilty of murder last month.
The loss of control argument was weakened by the planning needed to carry out the attack, particularly the fact it took 13 minutes to boil up all the water in the kettle.
Mark Rhind, QC, said: "The prosecution case is that her actions were deliberate and considered, that whilst she would obviously have been very upset and distressed about what she had heard, the evidence will demonstrate that she was in control and acted in anger and to extract vengeance for what she believed that Michael had done.
"We say that she intended either to kill Michael or to cause him really serious harm and so she is guilty of murder."
After the attack, in which the sugared boiling water was poured over the 80-year-old's arms and torso, she fled the house.
Smith went to a nearby house and banged on the front door until the occupant answered.
The neighbour contacted police and ambulance after hearing her say ‘I’ve hurt him really bad, I think I’ve killed him’.
A short time later officers arrived at the address.
They found Mr Baines in excruciating pain and whimpering in bed with the skin on his right arm and hand peeling off.
Mr Baines was found in the small bedroom at the end of the hallway, and told police: "I’m badly burned. I’m burned all over.’
"’She poured boiling water all over me. I just want to die.’"
It was accepted in court that Smith had not intended to kill her husband.
On one of her police interviews, she said: "I accept that I poured boiling water over Michael with sugar in it.
"The whole thing is a bit of a blur. Minutes became seconds.
"I just lost it and was so emotional, I was not acting out of revenge."
Detective Chief Inspector Paul Hughes, from Cheshire Constabulary’s Major Crime Directorate, said: “Smith killed her husband Michael in such a painful and cruel way.
“To throw boiling water over someone when they are asleep is absolutely horrific. To also mix three bags of sugar with the water showed the determination she had to cause serious harm.
“The sugar placed into the water makes it viscous. It becomes thicker and stickier and sinks into the skin better. It left Michael in agony and rather than call the emergency services she wasted time by going to a house nine doors away to tell a neighbour, who she wasn’t close to, what she had done.
“Michael was an elderly man who fought for his life after the attack but sadly in the end he passed away."
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