'Mercy killing' husband George Webb freed from prison
Appeal judges overturn the custodial sentence for the manslaughter of his ill wife in favour of a suspended term
A pensioner who smothered his 75-year-old wife after she begged him to help end her life was freed from a two-year prison sentence today.
George Webb, 73, killed his wife Beryl at their ground-floor flat in Wadsley, Sheffield, in May.
He was cleared of murder at Sheffield crown court in December, but found guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
His wife, who was in poor health, had pleaded with him to help her die after suffering years of pain. On 17 May he smothered her with a towel and a sleeping bag while she slept.
At the court of appeal in London, the lord chief justice, Lord Judge, Mr Justice Eady and Mr Justice Simon upheld his appeal against his sentence.
The judges replaced the two-year prison term imposed by the crown court with a suspended 12-month sentence. Lord Judge, who described it as a "tragic case", said the court did not believe "in the unusual and particular circumstances" that the "principle of the sanctity of human life would be undermined" by the reduction in his sentence.
He added that it would mean "that this lonely old man may receive the help that he will need to come to terms with the disaster that has overtaken him".
Webb, who spent 90 days in custody the equivalent of a six-month sentence was not present for the ruling.
His wife had a number of ailments some real and some imagined and had considered killing herself for years, the trial had heard.
She had begged her husband of 49 years to help her die. In May she attempted to kill herself with 34 tablets washed down with brandy and fizzy orange. When Webb feared this had not worked, he smothered his sleeping wife with a plastic bag and a towel, the court heard.
Judge said the jury concluded that Webb's mental responsibility for his actions had been substantially impaired. He had developed a psychiatric c! ondition , described as a significant adjustment disorder, and one of its prominent features was depression.
Judge said: "It is clear from the evidence ... that the mental turmoil engendered by the impossible situation in which he had found himself must have been dreadful.
"Cases of this kind are always unique. Each of them has its own individual and singular characteristics." Webb's lawyers told the appeal court that careful though the trial judge, Mr Justice McCombe, had been in his approach to the case, "the end result was a sentence that was too long".
It was argued that "insufficient allowance" was made for the mitigating circumstances.
Judge said: "We recognise, as the judge was at pains to underline, that this is not a case of assisted suicide. It is a case of manslaughter. Nevertheless, as it seems to us, there are features of this case which bring it close to an assisted suicide."
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