Pensioner who killed wife in suicide pact recalls moment he realised what he had done

• Video report by Granada Reports journalist Tim Scott

A pensioner who killed his terminally ill wife in a suicide pact says "every fibre in [his] body" was telling him not to do it.

Graham Mansfield, 73, walked free from court after being convicted of the manslaughter of his 71-year-old wife Dyanne.

A judge said he was entirely satisfied he had acted "out of love" in taking the life of his cancer-stricken wife of 40 years.

Mr Mansfield was sentenced to two years in jail, suspended for two years.

In March 2021, he cut her throat before unsuccessfully trying to take his own life at the couple’s home in Hale, Greater Manchester.

Recalling the moment, he said: "It’s not a nice place but we had to do it, I’d given my word to Dyanne.

"I said to Dyanne, are you ready Dyanne? And she said said ‘yeah’, so I did it.

"Every fibre in my body was telling me not to do it, but I knew I had to, the state that she was in.

“I went round to the front of Dyanne and I said ‘Dyanne, what have I done?’

"Dyanne just slumped forward, so I came round sat next to her, put my arm round her, and told her I loved her, said 'it’s my turn now', and with that I did it."

Months earlier, after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, Mrs Mansfield had asked the retired airport baggage handler to kill her when "things got bad".

He agreed but said he could not live without her, and the two formed a suicide pact.

Mr Mansfield said: "The last day was horrible, the clock’s ticking, you know you’ve only got so many hours left on this planet, as I’m jangling away inside, I'm thinking I hope I’ve got the nerve to do it.

"You’re having arguments with yourself."

Mr Mansfield said the pair, who had planned their final moments in detail, waited until darkness fell, had a drink to steady themselves, and went into the garden.

"When the time was here it was a horrible feeling," he added. "I helped Dyanne down to the bottom of the garden as she was unsteady on her legs.

"I came back to the house, turned the lights off, turned the heating off, and went out through the front door."

It was there he carried out the act, before turning the knife on himself.

But, despite his attempts Mr Mansfield was unsuccessful.

He added: "I woke up sometime later, all my body was shaking and I thought I’m not dead, why am I not dead? It’s not fair."

More than 11 hours after trying to take his own life, he called emergency services on the morning of 24 March 2021, knowing his sister would soon call round and find the scene.

Police and paramedics found Mr Mansfield lying in a pool of blood in his kitchen, while the body of Mrs Mansfield was slumped in a chair at the bottom of the garden.

Mr Mansfield now says the law must change in favour of euthanasia.

He said: "We have done nothing wrong it was our choice, we wanted to end our lives, we didn’t need permission from anybody else. We just wanted to end our lives that was it."

Mr Mansfield said he was offered a plea deal at the beginning of the trial, but adamantly told his counsel: “I am not pleading guilty to anything, we’ve done nothing wrong”.

"The law needs changing," he said. "If you’re charged with murder, in British law I was always under the impression, you’re innocent until proven guilty.

"But you’re not in my case, it was because you’ve had a suicide pact, the law says you have to prove to the prosecution that you’ve got one, they don’t have to supply anything, you’ve got to prove to them that you did have one.

"We knew the chances were they won’t find me guilty of murder, but the law means, if you’re found not guilty on murder you have to say guilty on manslaughter, so that doesn’t seem fair to me."

But, not everyone agrees with a law change, Care Not Killing advocates for palliative care.

Dr Mark Pickering said: "I worked as a doctor at a hospice and I've seen people coming in with very badly controlled pain who say 'just let me die there's nothing you can do'.

"But actually within a fairly short while we can turn things around, they're comfortable and actually they're using the final weeks of their lives to good effect, and they're very glad that they weren't given the opportunity to take their life."

When interviewed by police the couple’s family, friends and neighbours, spoke favourably about the defendant and his "unswerving devotion" to his wife.

"We had a long time to think about things," Mr Mansfield added. "We knew Dyanne had a terminal illness, and pretty quickly after she started chemo it was all downhill, it caused havoc to us.

"You don’t actually think about dying and how you’re going to kill yourself. We looked forward, we wanted life, we wanted to live forever together but then we realised no, we’ve got to."

He added: "Cutting your throat is like the most barbaric thing you can do, it sounds heartless, but it was the only thing that I could come up with… it’s quick, and it’s relatively painless, and you know it’s certain."

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To know...