Peterborough woman sentenced for strangling husband to death with dressing gown cord
She's been sentenced to a hospital order
A Peterborough woman has been sentenced after she strangled her husband of 31 years to death with a dressing gown cord.
Lorraine Smith, 63, called police in the early hours of 13 December 2021 and said, “my husband’s deceased body has been in the house for three days”, and, “I think it was me”.
Officers and paramedics went to the property in in Beauvale Gardens, Peterborough, and found 70-year-old Andrew Smith dead.
In interview, Smith described feeling confused and having “some sort of vision”.
She recalled having an argument with her husband before grabbing the cord from his dressing gown and pulling it tight around his neck until he lost consciousness.
Smith pleaded guilty to manslaughter at Peterborough Crown Court on 11 May, on the basis of diminished responsibility.
Diminished responsibility is a partial defence to murder, which is enacted when a defendant is deemed to be suffering from an abnormality of mental functioning, and therefore not in full control of their actions.
Today (2/6) at the same court she was given a hospital order.
DC Kirsty Forth said: “This is a tragic case where a man has lost his life prematurely. I hope now the case has been concluded his family can begin to move on with their lives.”