Brother of terminally ill woman killed in a suicide pact says her husband did the right thing

The brother of a terminally ill woman killed in a suicide pact says he supports his brother-in-law's actions and he believes he "did the right thing".

Dyanne Mansfield, 71, died when her husband Graham slit her throat in a suicide pact so she did not have to "wither away on tubes" in a hospital.

Mr Mansfield, 73, was charged with her murder but following a four-day trial walked free from court after a jury found him guilty of manslaughter.

He was sentenced to two years in jail, suspended for two years, after a judge said he was entirely satisfied he acted “out of love”.

Mrs Mansfield's brother, Peter Higson, who attended the trial throughout in support of his brother-in-law, said ultimately he agreed with the actions Mr Mansfield took.

"I agree with what he did, I just could not do it," he said. "Pain control was very very difficult, almost impossible, and she had had enough.

"But how on earth, you put yourself in a similar situation, how on earth do you actually kill the person who is the most important human being on the planet to you.

"It takes a lot of courage and a lot of nerve, and I couldn’t."

Mr Higson said he had found himself in a similar position when his own wife died from cancer.

"[I looked at Graham] with sympathy because I understood the situation that he was in," he said.

"I understood what thoughts were going through his mind at the time, and - it might be the wrong word to use for some people - but the courage to do what he did.

"The reason I say that is because I was in a similar situation not 10 years ago with my wife, who had an incurable disease, muscular dystrophy but also died of cancer.

"She had asked me to end her life because she couldn’t stand the pain any longer and I could not take that last step, Graham did.

"So I completely understood his mindset, where he was and why he did it.

"Some people might find that strange but I knew exactly why he’d done it and like a lot of things in life, unless you have actually been in a very very similar situation I don’t think any words can describe what goes through that person’s mind at the time.

"Not many people will and I supposed you have to live it to understand it totally."

Mr Higson said although he missed his sister "dreadfully" he knew she did not have long left at the time of her death.

He said: "I’ve lost my sister, we knew we were going to lose her anyhow because the diagnosis was extremely short, months of a couple of years at the most, so we knew she hadn’t got very long to live.

"The last time I saw her she was very, very ill. She was too weak to get out of the car and come into the house.

"When I tried to give her a hug I could see she was just skin and bones, so time was very short.

"I miss her dreadfully but she’s gone. I think he did the right thing."

Mr Higson said he supported calls for a change in the law for assisted dying.

"I understand you can’t go around killing people willy nilly, that there has to be a legal process.

"But I think it does need looking at because Graham is not the first and is not the last, there will be more I’m sure."

Speaking of the two year suspended sentence, he added: "I was relieved because he was originally charged with murder.

"When he was found not guilty of murder and guilty of manslaughter, I was a little bit worried that he may go to jail.

"We had talked about it outside the court room, that was my major concern, but obviously the judge gave him a suspended sentence.

"I was relieved we were able to walk out the court in the evening rather than Graham spending the evening in jail."

Pro-life campaign group Care Not Killing opposes assisted dying, and instead advocates for palliative care.

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."

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