A pensioner who strangled his wife to death five days into the first UK lockdown has been found not guilty of murder.
Anthony Williams, 70, told police he "literally choked the living daylights" out of his wife Ruth, 67, at their home on the morning of March 28 last year after a period of feeling depressed and anxious.
A psychologist argued Williams's anxiety "was heightened" around the time of the attack, which "substantially impaired his ability to understand the nature of his conduct, form a rational judgment, and impaired his ability to exercise self-control".
The court had heard that hehad been struggling to sleep for a few nights that week and was worried about the lockdown, which had been imposed days earlier, and also feared Covid-19.
Matthew Roberts, prosecuting, told the jury that Williams snapped and attacked his wife when she told him to “get over it”.
The attack began in the bedroom and when Mrs Williams fled downstairs, her husband followed.
After the attack, Williams alerted neighbours, who informed the emergency services.
His wife was found slumped in the porch of their home with a pair of keys in her hand. She was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead.
A pathologist found Mrs Williams died from pressure to the neck and had also suffered neck fractures.
During the hearing, it was outline how the 70-year-old was said to have barely left the side of his 67-year-old wife with the pair described as a “typical couple in their late 60s” before the fatal attack.
Emma Williams, 40, said her parents spent “90% of their time together”, were “not argumentative people”, and she had never heard either of them even “raise their voice” during their 46-year marriage. She told Swansea Crown Court: “My dad’s a gentle giant. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
But she said he had shown signs of strange behaviour from January 2020 which she recorded in an email written two days after the fatal assault at the couple’s home.
It included Williams claiming he was going to lose the couple’s home, which they owned outright and had finished paying the mortgage on, and becoming “obsessed” with turning off lights and heating to save money.
The jury at Swansea Crown Court found Williams not guilty of murder by a unanimous verdict on Monday afternoon.
Williams, from Brynglas, Cwmbran, had already pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, and will be sentenced on Thursday.
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