Man beaten to death with bedpan

A ONE-LEGGED pensioner beat her husband to death with a bedpan after he taunted her about affairs he had had 40 years before, the Old Bailey was told yesterday.

Mabel Hyams, 79, of Kingsbury, north-west London, admitted the manslaughter of her husband, Harold, also 79, in July last year.

The Recorder of London, Judge Lawrence Verney, imposed a 12-month prison sentence suspended for 12 months.

The court was told that Mr Hyams was found dead in a chair at his home by neighbours called in by his wife. She admitted she had hit him over the head with a plastic bedpan but insisted she had not meant to kill him and told police he had subjected her to physical and verbal abuse.

A pathologist found at least 30 bruises of varying ages on virtually every part of Mr Hyams's body.

Anthony Wilcken, for the prosecution, said Hyams lost her leg in 1941. He said she was totally reliant on her husband but 'nursed considerable resentment' over affairs he had had in the early years of their 57-year marriage.