'An act of love to end her suffering' - Judge's words as man walks free from court after cutting wife's throat

It was ‘an act of love, of compassion, to end her suffering'.

Those were the heartbreaking words of Mr Justice Goose as he handed Graham Mansfield a suspended sentence for killing his wife during a failed suicide pact.

The 73-year-old was found guilty of manslaughter after a jury heard he slit his wife's throat then failed to kill himself. After saying he was 'entirely satisfied' that Mansfield had acted out of love for his wife, Mr Justice Goose today imposed a two year prison sentence, suspended for two years on the retired Manchester Airport baggage handler.

His wife Dyanne Mansfield, 71, had been diagnosed with lung cancer and was becoming 'weaker and weaker, Manchester Crown Court heard. Police found Mr Mansfield lying in a pool of blood in the kitchen of their home in Canterbury Road, Hale.

"The last thing you would have wanted was not joining your wife in death," Justice Goose told Mansfield. "The circumstances of this case have been a tragedy for you and exceptional in the experience of this court."

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At the trial, Mr Mansfield denied murder and manslaughter. The judge had previously told jurors that for Mr Mansfield to be convicted of murder, they had to be sure that he used unlawful violence which caused the death of his wife, and that he intended to kill her.

But the case could be reduced to manslaughter if they believed it was "more likely than not" that Mrs Mansfield voluntarily agreed to the suicide pact and that her husband had made a genuine attempt to take his own life. The judge, who told jurors they must apply the law despite 'however sympathetic you may feel', said previously: "It remains unlawful and may reduce this offence from