'Hitman' wife jailed

A woman and her son who plotted to have her husband crippled in revenge for 20 years of violence and sexual abuse were yesterday each jailed at the Old Bailey for three years.

Anne Redwood, 56, and Stephen Yarrow, her son by a previous marriage, both of north London, had plotted to hire a hitman to injure Stanley Redwood, but the man approached was an undercover police officer. Passing sentence, the judge told Redwood: "By any standards you would fit the description of a battered wife", but said he was taking into account the fact that the couple had been separated since 1993 while the plot was hatched between October and December last year.