Man "snaps' and kills wife, sentenced to 5 years

[snowballer]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-56109330

This is just so depressing. I understand it couldn't be shown to be premeditated and therefore murder, but how can it be such a short sentence in view of the fact she was found with keys in hand trying to escape and it wasn't therefore something that happened in the space of a few seconds? Manslaughter sentences can still be hefty - I just can't understand this. Just another devastating end of a life for a woman at the hands of a man, with another miserably short sentence for the perpetrator. Awful. Just awful.

He's an old man, in 5 years he may be very frail and ultimately he has to live with the guilt of killing his wife.

He's only 70, in the prison I work that's not even that old. There's loads older than that with sentences that mean they are going to die in there.

And yes a lot are seriously frail, to the extent of having care packages frail. This man wasn't too frail to kill someone was he? So he's already not actually that frail.

Rubbish excuses and judge should have known better.

If spend 2.5 years inside for a house and 150k cash

I’d

@snowballer

The short summary of what he/she says is that the sentence appears to be justified in law and followed the sentence guidelines, based on the verdict that the jury reached. As none of us were privy to the hours of evidence the jury heard, we can't comment on the verdict. Whether the sentence guidelines are fit for purpose or not is another matter.

I don’t agree, because the judge could have sent the man to a mental health facility for an indefinite period. The secret barrister is simply talking about sentancing, what he or she has not looked at or questioned is if responsibility is diminished enough to kill why was he sent to prison?

Take the paranoid schizophrenic woman who ran over and killed a man on purpose and killed him and she stabbed another, she was sent to a mental health institute indefinitely.

Why is this man deemed to have had such diminished responsibility he actually brutally killed someone, in a way that took several minutes at least, but yet he’s not deemed to be so ill he needs to be sent to hospital. That doesn’t work. On any level.

His poor wife, the terror she must have felt. This wasn’t he snapped and stabbed her and it was done in a flash. This was he spent several mins strangling her to death.

Agree with Harriet Harmon too. Glad she has asked for the sentence to be reviewed. Murdering your spouse/partner should be an aggravated crime not the excuse for soft sentences. You are killed by someone who has unchallenged physical access to you, likely to benefit from you and whom you have a reasonable expectation to trust to protect you not the opposite.

@Bluntness100 - I did also say that the verdict wasn't something anyone who wasn't in the courtroom could comment on. I don't know how such a low level diminished responsibility verdict was reached either. I just posted the link and the summary to explain why it ended up as 5 years as per the sentencing guidelines.

someone upthread said he'd serve 4+ years. Secret Barrister says he'll be up for parole in 2 and a half. And he'll get it because "fuck women, they don't count"

And you can explain until you're blue in the face that all this is perfectly in line with legal practice. But it still doesn't convince me that the sentence is a slap in the face to women and no deterrent AT ALL to any man who has a nasty temper.

@Brefugee - I agree even his max term of five years is no deterrent, and definitely not 2.5 years... not to any wife beater. We are supposed to be a civilised country that takes women seriously. Clearly that is NOT the case.

@PlanDeRaccordement

Whatever. I didn’t introduce Olga to this thread, another poster did and I was merely contributing to their comparison which minimised the killing of a disabled child. Both crimes were horrific.

Liar. I did not minimise the death of a disabled child. Next time you lie about me, have the courage to @ me.

Sorry, everyone else.

It's disgusting!

A woman's life does not have the same value as a man. At any point he could have stopped himself. The terror she must have felt.

Money woes? Nonsense.

The Justice System is really pathetic.

[quote TheNestedIf]@PlanDeRaccordement

Whatever. I didn’t introduce Olga to this thread, another poster did and I was merely contributing to their comparison which minimised the killing of a disabled child. Both crimes were horrific.

Liar. I did not minimise the death of a disabled child. Next time you lie about me, have the courage to @ me.

Sorry, everyone else.[/quote]
Yes you did. I’m not lying, your post stated that Olga being “indefinitely detained” was somehow a harsher sentence than Anthony’s 5yrs in prison. Neglecting to mention it was a hospital order which could be lifted in less than 5 years and most probably will be. Neglecting to mention that she killed her own child.
Killing a child is a worse crime than killing an adult.
You minimised her crime in my opinion.

@PlanDeRaccordement

Liar.

[quote TheNestedIf]@PlanDeRaccordement

Liar.[/quote]
You minimised by omission. My filling in the gaps you deliberately left, isn’t lying.

@PlanDeRaccordement

Liar.

Ladies please!

@StephenBelafonte

Ladies please!

Not to worry. I saw it ages ago and am done with nested. There is no conversation once it descends into name calling.

@PlanDeRaccordement

Liar.

Apologies to the rest of the thread.

Update on this case. Very depressing. The 5 year sentence stands.
www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/cwmbran-courts-anthony-williams-murder-20502506

Have you seen the obituaries for The Sun journalist John Kay?
Fabulous bloke, great journalist. Mentored many staff.

Oh yes, and he did 5 years for the manslaughter of his first wife (they forgot to mention)