A Briton named Graham Mansfield is accused of killing his wife, Dyanne Mansfield, who was very ill and was about to die. Mansfield testified in the case earlier this week. He said Dyanne asked him to kill her.
Graham Mansfield, 73, was found guilty of manslaughter rather than murder. According to a BBC report, the March 2021 event took place at the couple’s suburban home.
Dyanne, who was 71 at the time, was told in October 2020 that she had stage four cancer. Doctors told Graham she had only a few years to live if she underwent chemotherapy.
Graham was quoted by the Manchester Evening News as saying:
“She said to me, ‘Graham, now is the best thing I’ll ever be. Will you kill me when things get bad, when they get too bad for me? I had never heard words that made me so sad.”
In his statement, the 73-year-old said he planned to kill Dyanne while he died too.
“Without her, nothing else matters. I told her, “You’re not alone in this and we’re going to see it through to the end.” Graham Mansfield tries to kill himself, but his plan goes awry.
Graham Mansfield called England’s 999 emergency number on March 24 last year to say his wife Dyanne had died. Graham also attempted suicide by taking too much of a drug.
When paramedics arrived, Dyanne’s throat had been cut and Graham was lying in a “pool of blood”. The Times said he even asked the police to let him die.
Here’s what Graham Mansfield said when speaking to police at the time:
“My wife has cancer that will kill her soon, so we agreed to kill each other. I think I killed my wife and now I’m trying to kill myself, but everything goes wrong.”
Police also found two notes stating the couple decided to die together. According to a Times report, none of the notes bore Dyanne’s signature.
Graham said more about the case than he testified:
“We didn’t think we were doing anything wrong when we were about to kill ourselves. We didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission to say we’re done with this world and want to leave.”
The Guardian said the jury did not convict Graham Mansfield of murder, but found him guilty of manslaughter and handed him a two-year sentence with the first year suspended.