WIFE SHOWN MERCY FOR KILLING HUBBY
Depressed carer believed she was doing what he wanted, court told
A FORMER councillor who killed her sick husband by smothering him with a cushion walked free from court yesterday.
Susanne Wilson, 72, admitted the culpable homicide of Henry, 70, at their Ayr home in September 2016.
But judge Lady Rae said the retired nurse’s case involved “exceptional circumstances”.
Wilson was carer to her housebound husband, who had chronic heart disease.
And she was struggling to come to terms will allegations of sex abuse made against him.
Lady Rae told Wilson: “Punishment would not be in the interests of justice. The main reason was your mental health at the time.
“I hope you get on with the rest of your life.”
Bill McVicar, prosecuting, told the court Wilson, a Labour councillor in Troon in the 90s, had been married for 50 years and had three children.
She accepted the sex abuse claims against her husband were true but continued to live in the same house to provide care to him.
They rowed on the day of his death and she went out.
But when she returned, he had taken his medication and was struggling to breathe.
He said to her: “Help me” and she took that as a request to help him die.
Gordon Jackson QC, defending, said now Wilson’s mental condition had improved, she found what she had done “horrifying”.