‘Are you ready?’ Man tells of slitting wife’s throat in suicide pact in garden
Grieving husband, 73, calls for euthanasia to be legalised after being convicted of the manslaughter of his terminally ill wife
A man who killed his terminally ill wife in a suicide pact has called for assisted dying to be legalised in the UK after he walked free from court.
Graham Mansfield, 73, was convicted of the manslaughter of his wife, Dyanne, 71, who had stage-four lung cancer and had said she couldn’t take any more.
He told how in March last year they cried together and said they loved one another before going into the garden at their home in Hale, Greater Manchester, to end their lives.
Mr Mansfield slit his wife’s throat then unsuccessfully tried to kill himself.
After being given a suspended two-year jail sentence, he said: “If someone is terminally ill, if they’re in pain, what’s wrong with saying, ‘I don’t want to live any more’?
“[Euthanasia] is a humane and sensible way to do things. The law meant we had to resort to this barbaric method.”
Mrs Mansfield had been told of her cancer in October 2020, just weeks after the couple’s 40th wedding anniversary.
When they returned home from hospital, she asked whether he would be willing to kill her if things “got too bad”, he told the Manchester Evening News.
He agreed “on one condition”. “I said I would have to go with her. I said, ‘I can”t live without you, Dyanne’.
“In a funny way, it gave me strength. I knew I was dying as well. I could focus on that,” he said.
The couple had met in 1974 in Wythenshawe, and it was, according to Mr Mansfield, a loving and happy marriage.
He told the paper: “Dyanne was a wonderful person. She was my whole world. We didn’t need anybody else. We just needed one another. We had a wonderful life together.”
But by March last year, Mrs Mansfield, a retired import/export clerk, was in unbearable pain and told her husband she couldn’t take any more.
On March 22 they drove to Buxton and Macclesfield to find a “quiet” and “convenient” place to carry out the pact, but instead decided to use their garden the following day.
Mr Mansfield, a retired airport baggage handler, had cancelled the papers and the milk delivery, emptied the freezer and tidied the house.
The couple’s last night together was spent “crying and telling each other how much we loved one another”, he said.
The next day Mrs Mansfield had a glass of red wine, while Mr Mansfield had a can of lager and a whisky and lemonade.
They put their coats on and walked to the bottom of the garden.
He asked: “Are you ready?”, to which she replied: “Yes, I won”t make a noise”.
He then walked behind her chair and slit her throat with a Stanley knife.
I ran round to the front of the chair. I said: ‘What have I done?’
Mr Mansfield broke down in tears as he recalled that horrific moment. “It went against every fibre of my body,” he said.
“I ran round to the front of the chair. I said: ‘What have I done?’ I sat next to her, put my arm round her and told I loved her.”
He then tried to take his own life, and passed out before waking up in the kitchen the next day. He called 999, was arrested and told police everything.
A note in the garden addressed to police read: “We have decided to take our own lives.”
Mr Mansfield was eventually charged with murder, which he denied.
At Manchester Crown Court the judge, Mr Justice Goose, told jurors that the murder charge could be reduced to manslaughter if they believed it was “more likely than not” that the suicide pact was a joint agreement, which Mrs Mansfield had voluntarily agreed to and that her husband had made a genuine attempt on his own life.
Jurors took 90 minutes to return the unanimous verdict following a four-day trial. The judge said he was entirely satisfied that Mr Mansfield had acted out of love and compassion.
But Mr Mansfield, who admitted feeling “elation” at the sentence, said the case should never have gone to court, calling for euthanasia to be legalised in the UK.
If the Covid lockdown had not stopped international travel they would have considered going to Dignitas in Switzerland, he said.
“We have done nothing wrong. We didn’t need permission from other people. It was our decision. I killed her with love.”