A pensioner who cut his wife's throat then tried to kill himself in a failed suicide pact has walked free from court after his spouse's sibling said he'd 'suffered more than enough' already. Peter Higson said he would have been 'very unhappy' if his 73-year-old brother-in-law Graham Mansfield were to be jailed for the killing of his sister Dyanne Mansfield.
Mrs Mansfield, 71, a retired import/export clerk, had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and had weeks to live when her husband of more than 40 years killed her in their garden in Canterbury Road, Hale. He then made serious attempts on his own life which were ultimately unsuccessful.
Mansfield said he called 999 after the failed attempts, while lying in a pool of blood in the kitchen, because he didn't want his sister to come across the 'extraordinary' scene. When police arrived, he told one officer 'please just leave me to die'.
