NORTH YORKSHIRE WOMAN WALKS FREE AFTER KILLING HUSBAND WITH HAMMER
A severely depressed pensioner who beat her husband to death with a hammer walked free from court yesterday.Former nurse Mary Milbank Swinburn, 68, launched a frenzied attack after the behavior of her husband, William, became too much for her to take.
After landing 25 blows she walked barefoot to a surgery and told staff what she had done - still wearing her bloodstained night clothes and carrying the hammer.
Mr Swinburn never recovered from the attack, at their home in Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, on October 22 last year.
He died in hospital almost two months later.
At Leeds Crown Court, his wife admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Judge Norman Jones, who ordered her to do three years' community rehabilitation, said: "In many ways it was only a matter of time before something gave way." James Goss, prosecuting, said 77-year-old Mr Swinburn, who had been married to his wife for 20 years, had once been a businessman with a generous personality but changed after suffering two strokes.
He depended totally on his wife - but she was a long-term manic depressive with a psychotic condition.
The court heard that, instead of being referred to her psychiatrist when her condition deteriorated in September, she saw geriatric specialists who did not know the best way to treat her.
Martin Harrison, defending, said Milburn had suffered from guilt but was now stable on medication.
She is living in Scunthorpe with her son, a trained nurse.
