Freed nurse could be home `in days'

A BRITISH nurse cleared of murdering her unfaithful husband after she shot him dead may be home from America "in days", her lawyer said yesterday.

Helen Cummings, 33, was found not guilty of the second degree murder of her husband, Tyler Cummings, after a Florida jury decided she acted in self-defence She is eight-and-a-half months pregnant with the couple's child.

Warner Olds, her lawyer, said Mrs Cummings was so desperate to go home to Preston, Lancashire, to see her one-year-old son that she may fly despite being near full term.

He said: "As far as I'm aware the pregnancy does not stop her from flying if she wants to. I don't know if she'll be back by the weekend but it could be within days."

The maternity nurse admitted killing her husband and had been facing life imprisonment if found guilty, but the jury unanimously cleared her on the ninth day of her trial in Florida.

The court heard how she thought her husband would kill her after she confronted him with pictures of him naked with another woman.

The outcome was received with relief by her mother, Marion Billington, in Preston where she is looking after her daughter's son, Terry.

Mrs Billington said: "I have not spoken to Helen long enough to know what her plans are. She just cried, she wants to get back to see Terry and he wants to see her.

"It is the right decision, she had suffered enough."

During the trial Mrs Cummings told the court how she feared for her life and had even contemplated suicide when she shot her husband at their home in Fort Lauderdale on 14 February.