Swansea Crown Court

Anthony Williams, 70, has been sentenced to five years in prison after killing his wife in lockdown. 

Labour’s Harriet Harman QC said this is “unduly lenient” and wants the attorney general to refer the case to the Court of Appeal, the BBC reported.

Williams admitted manslaughter, saying “I flipped out” and “didn’t know what came over me”. He was cleared of murder but jailed for manslaughter of his wife Ruth, 67, in their home in Cwmbran, Torfaen, at the start of lockdown.

A psychiatrist had told the court that William’s mental health had deteriorated after retiring in 2019, not helped by the coronavirus pandemic. In his Swansea Crown Court trial, it was said that he strangled his wife after an argument on 28 March at the start of the first lockdown.

Whilst giving the sentence, Judge Paul Thomas said: “The overwhelming greatest tragedy is that a lady of 67 years who was in good health had her life ended at the hands of a man she had loved for nearly 50 years.”