'Mercy killing' husband spared jail

Published: Friday, 10 October 2008, 1:57PM

An Alzheimer's sufferer was smothered with two plastic bags by her husband who feared after he would no longer be able to look after her.

Eric Norton, 86, blew a kiss to the public gallery at the Old Bailey after hearing he was being spared jail for killing his wife.

Other patients at Lewisham Hospital heard 84-year-old Betty Norton whimper "no, no" as she struggled for several minutes as her husband tried to kill her.

The retired civil servant was handed a nine-month suspended sentence after admitting smothering his ailing wife after her declining health culminated in her being admitted to hospital with severe stomach pains.

On the afternoon of November 2, he visited the ward where she was living with three other patients and pulled the curtain round her bed to kill her.

Then he went home and rang his niece to tell her what he had done and that he was planning to kill himself.

Judge Brian Barker, the Common Serjeant of London, handed him a nine-month suspended sentence and told him: "The last thing that you had wanted to do was this and you had clearly dedicated yourself to your wife's welfare.

"I am totally convinced you are a thoughtful, kind and honest man and had been a devoted husband."

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