Sentence is cut for stab death woman
AWOMAN who stabbed her partner to death in a ‘remorseless’ attack wept with joy as judges cut her sentence.
Lisa Withers, 49, killed Jason Capper, 45, in an attack outside their home in Cheadle Heath.
She told him: “You deserve it. I hope you die.”
Withers was sentenced to a minimum term of 26 years in November last year, but on Thursday judges at the Court of Appeal in London ruled that was too harsh and reduced the minimum to 23 years.
Withers, a mum-ofthree, had told a trial she had been subjected to months of degrading abuse at the hands of Mr Capper.
At the Court of Appeal Mr Justice Langstaff said 26 years did not reflect the mitigating features of the case.
Withers, of Ash Street, appeared via a video link from prison and wept throughout the hour-long hearing.
Mr Capper’s family disputes Withers’s allegations of abuse.
At the trial, his sister Shirley Graham said: “You are the lucky one, you will still get to see your parents, children and grandchildren, we are the ones with a life sentence.
“Your poison and attempts to destroy Jason’s character hurt the family as much as your knife.”
Mr Capper October 2015.
The court heard how he and Withers had been drinking and arguing before he went to an offlicence to buy more alcohol. died in
While he was out, she sent him a message, telling him not to return.
But he did go back home and, on the doorstep of their house, began a blazing row with Withers’ son, Christopher.
Withers then went inside, took a knife from the kitchen and stabbed Mr Capper in the back three or four times.
He got up and staggered away, but Withers followed and stabbed him again.
“It was inevitably a fatal blow and plainly struck with some considerable force,” said the appeal judge.
Reducing the sentence, Mr Justice Langstaff said the trial judge had gone too far because he had not given enough credit for mitigating features.
They included the fact that Withers had initially been acting to protect her son and the fact she has mental health difficulties.
Sitting with Sir Andrew Smith and Lady Justice Rafferty, he cut the minimum term to 23 years.
Withers will only be freed after serving that term if she is considered safe by the Parole Board.