Peterborough woman (64) sentenced to hospital order after killing husband (70)

A Peterborough woman, who strangled her husband of over 30 years to death, will be detained in hospital until it is safe for her to be released.

Lorraine Smith (64) killed her husband Andrew Smith in the home they shared together at Beauvale Gardens in Gunthorpe in December 2021.

Smith was initially charged with murder, which she pleaded not guilty to before later pleading guilty to manslaughter with diminished responsibility.

In English law, diminished responsibility is a partial defence to murder, in which the defendant is suffering from an abnormality of mental functioning, so they were not in control of their actions. When the defence is accepted, the charge is reduced from murder to manslaughter.

During her sentencing on Friday (June 2), both the prosecution and defence made their cases for what extent Smith’s severe depression enabled her to retain self-control and provided an explanation for her actions.

Mr and Mrs Smith woke up together on the morning of Saturday December 11, with the court being told that Mrs Smith was feeling confused, likely as a result of amitriptyline (antidepressant medication) and co-codamol she had taken the night before.

She then followed her husband downstairs before an argument she later described as “trivial” and “silly” ensued.

Mrs Smith described pushing and shoving having taken place, in her police interview, but she said that nothing aggressive took place.

When Mr Smith attempted to tie his dressing gown cord, she pulled it from him and put it around his neck, the court heard, applying pressure until Mr Smith ultimately passed away despite trying to fight back.

Smith made a 999 call at 1pm but did not say anything and attempts for call-handlers to get back in touch with her were unsuccessful.

Eventually, she called police again at 2:45am on Monday morning (December 13) to alert them to the fact that her husband’s body was lying on the kitchen floor.

She said “I think it was me, I don’t know what was happened. I don’t know what I have done.” She also asked police not to break the door down.

When officers arrived at around 3am, they found Mr Smith’s body still on the kitchen floor with a pillow under his head and a coat over him.

Mrs Smith complained about officers bringing mud on to the carpet but officers described her as in shock and struggling to stand. She later told police “I can’t believe what I have done” and said she felt ashamed: “I feel awful about it, I just want to die.”

Police also recovered fragments of a burnt confession/suicide note addressed to “my beautiful,” which was stated in court to have been destroyed when Smith’s attempts to take her own life failed.

In his sentencing, Judge Sean Enright said: “There was an undiagnosed but serious medical condition, which crept up on you during the pandemic and was not picked up by others.

"It is notorious that face-to-face doctor appointments were very difficult to get and GP appointments were usually by phone.

“Social isolation is a factor, most of your family were living away and your relationship with your husband was distant and strained.

“By December, your depression was severe and undiagnosed.”

During her hospital order, Smith will be at Hellesdon Hospital in Norwich.