Post by Salem6 on Jan 15, 2005 9:57:34 GMT
A retired policeman who killed his terminally ill wife and then tried to kill himself has been spared jail.
Brian Blackburn admitted killing his terminally ill wife in a suicide pact
Brian Blackburn, 62, from Ash in Surrey, was given a suspended nine month sentence at the Old Bailey, after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
He admitted entering into a suicide pact with his wife, Margaret, also 62, who was dying of stomach cancer.
Judge Richard Hawkins said he had acted as a "loving husband" but that taking a life was a serious matter.
He said former nurse Mrs Blackburn had had only weeks to live and had asked her husband to cut her wrists "as the last loving thing you could do for her".
The court was told Blackburn went on to cut his own wrists in an identical way but his blood congealed and he rang police when he did not die.
A post-mortem examination on Mrs Blackburn had shown she had a 3kg (about 6lbs 8oz) tumour in her stomach.
She did not seek medical help because she had worked in a hospice and had an abhorrence of surgery.
"My wife did not want to die slowly in hospital. I did what she asked me to do," Blackburn had told the court.
"I failed myself and will now have to pay the price."
Margaret Blackburn was terminally ill when her husband cut her wrists
Blackburn said that as his wife's condition worsened, she had kept asking him to do something.
"I told her I could not. She said it was the most loving thing I could do for her."
He said he had put his arms around her for 20 minutes as she died.
'Exceptional case'
Judge Hawkins said there had been exceptional circumstances in the case but warned that taking someone else's life was a serious matter.
However he told Blackburn: "I am not going to send you to prison."
Blackburn, a Hampshire Police officer for 20 years, married his wife in 1998 and the killing took place on 15 October last year.
Mrs Blackburn's sons, Colin and Martin Lawrence, wrote to the judge pleading for mercy.
They told him: "The act that Dad undertook was totally unselfish and we have no bad feelings whatsoever."
Blackburn, who has spent three months in prison since his arrest, was greeted by friends and family as he left the court.
His solicitor Rebecca Shortt said: "My client is delighted with the outcome.
"The circumstances in which he found himself were a tragic episode."
The Lawrence brothers said they were relieved Blackburn had been released and that they would "help him through these difficult times".
The Voluntary Euthanasia Society called for an urgent change in the law in the wake of the case.
A private member's bill, Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill, has been submitted to Parliament by Lord Joffe.
Chief executive Deborah Annetts said that if it had been law, Mrs Blackburn would have had a gentle and dignified death.
"Mr Blackburn would not have had to end her life, then face a lengthy and traumatic police investigation and trial," she said.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4174155.stm