A British man who killed his dying wife and then tried to kill himself has been given a nine-month suspended sentence by a London court.
Brian Blackburn (62) admitted entering into a suicide pact with his wife Margaret, also 62, who was suffering from stomach cancer.
Mrs Blackburn was in constant pain, could not eat or sleep and begged her husband to end her suffering. Mr Blackburn could not bear to live without her, the Old Bailey heard.
In her husband's words, she "wanted it to be over" and not have a protracted and painful death. After saying goodbye to her two grown-up sons from a previous marriage, Mrs Blackburn begged her husband: "You have got to do something.
"You have got to cut my wrists and then do yours and we will meet each other on the other side."
He told her: "I can't." But she insisted: "You have got to. I can't go to hospital. It's the last loving thing - it's the last loving thing you can do for me."
After a night in which she was in pain, he placed a blanket over her as she lay on the sofa of their living room and put a flannel on her face so she did not have to watch. He cut both writs and held her in his arms as her life drifted away.
As she became weaker, he whispered: "I am here, you know." It took only 20 minutes for her to die. Then he took away the flannel and combed her hair.
His defence counsel, Mr Peter Binder, said: "He was prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice to be with her. The fact she died and he survived appears to be an accident."