A retired British factory worker who admitted strangling his wife just days into the first national coronavirus virus closure has been found not guilty of murder.
The 70-year-old Anthony Williams told police in Wales that he literally suffocated the living daylight from his wife Ruth’s 46-year-old wife on March 28 at their home in Cwmbran, five days in the UK, left ‘depressed’. reported the Independent.
Williams told detectives he killed his 67-year-old wife after “breaking” during an argument. He retired from his job as a factory worker 18 months earlier and did not do well in the aftermath.
“I’m sorry, I just cracked,” he told officers at the scene. “I am sorry.”
According to the Sun, Williams strangled his wife with a dressing gown, who also noted that the horrific attack was the first assassination reported. Prosecutors said he went to the house of a neighbor after the murder and admitted.
“She’s dead, I killed her – we fought and I strangled her,” Williams allegedly told an operator. “You must come at once.”
Respondents found Ruth Williams on the couple’s porch while holding a set of keys. She was later pronounced dead at a hospital, where doctors found bleeding in her eyes, face and mouth, as well as five fractures in her neck, the Sun reported.
During the trial, jurors heard recordings from Williams who insisted the police’s death was ‘not murder’ and claimed he ‘did not mean’ to kill her.
“I just turned around, it wasn’t me,” Williams told officials, according to the Sun. “I will not hurt a fly, it was not me, I am not like that and I do not know what came over me.”
A jury in Swansea Crown unanimously acquitted Williams of murder on Monday.
A psychologist testified that Williams’ anxiety and depression were ‘increased’ by the strict COVID-19 exclusion and affected his ability to control his actions, reports the Independent.
Williams’ former work was “one of his most important coping mechanisms” for his “neurotic nature,” psychologist Alison Witts told the court.
But a second psychologist told jurors Williams had “no psychiatric” defense for the killings, saying he had no history of depression.
‘[Williams] knew what he was doing at the time, ”psychologist Damian Gamble told the court.
The couple’s daughter, meanwhile, said she feared her father had gotten out of control months earlier and told her he thought the couple would lose their home, despite the fact that they had no mortgage and more than $ 205 000 savings, reports BBC.
The father, who previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter due to reduced responsibility, will apparently be sentenced by the judge on Thursday on the lesser charge.