A retired civil servant who suffocated his seriously ill wife with a plastic bag as she lay in her hospital bed has been spared jail. Sidney Norton, 86, killed Betty, 84, after struggling to care for her as her dementia worsened. He had told his GP weeks earlier they had agreed to die together following 57 years of happy marriage. Norton used plastic bags to suffocate his wife in November last year after she was taken to A&E with stomach pains. However, his attempts to suffocate himself at home failed, the Old Bailey was told. He was originally charged with murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter after the prosecution accepted his judgment was affected by the stress of being his spouse's sole carer. The Common Serjeant of London, Judge Brian Barker QC, sentenced him to nine months in prison suspended for 12 months. He said:...
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