Man gets life for 'horrific' killing of his wife who planned to leave him

A HUSBAND who subjected his wife to a "horrific and terrifying" death as she planned to leave him has been jailed for life.

Joseph Richardson, 61, killed wife Janette, 57, with a guinea pig ornament and fishing knives after she rekindled a relationship with an old friend, the High Court in Edinburgh heard.

Richardson, who admitted murder, was led away to a cry of "Why did you have to do it?" from the public galleries, as family and friends of his wife watched him being sentenced.

Judge Lord Doherty ordered Richardson to serve a punishment period of 13 years and two months for the murder in November last year at the family home in Musselburgh, East Lothian.

Mrs Richardson was a mother to four grown-up children, Joanne, Gavin, Daniel and Laura.A statement on behalf of the family yesterday insisted they will never forgive Richardson for the murder.

It stated: "For as long as we live, it will be with the memory of a wonderful person whose life was so brutally ended by a totally selfish act.

"Our mum was our world. She was cruelly taken away from us at a time when she had so much more still to live for. She would do anything that was asked of her and always put others before herself."

The family have now lost both their mother and father, the statement added.

"We were a normal, close-knit, loving family prior to this," it went on.

"However, we can never forgive him for taking our mum's life."

Lord Docherty told the court yesterday that it was clear Richardson was "very distressed" by the breakdown of the marriage and struggled to come to terms with it.

But he added: "You subjected your wife to a terrifying and horrific death.

"Prior to confronting her, you armed yourself with two knives and an ornament," said the judge. "The attack on her was brutal and sustained."

The court heard that Richardson, who had no previous convictions, had completed his mortgage payments and was set to spend his retirement with his wife, whom he married in 1974.

But she was "dissatisfied" in the marriage, the defence QC, Mark Stewart, told the court.

The 57-year-old told her husband she was planning to leave him for an old friend from her younger days with whom she had got back in touch and had been meeting.

Richardson, who came to realise that he would be spending his retirement alone, sought counselling and visited his GP.

But Mr Stewart said he lost "self-control and perspective", resulting in the attack on his wife on November 27.

The couple were found lying on a bed by a relative, who thought they were both dead.

But when the couple's eldest daughter, Joanne Greenhill, arrived at the murder scene, she saw Richardson open his eyes and realised he was breathing.

The court heard that she was "extremely distressed" by what she saw in the bedroom at the family home.

The High Court was told that, on the day of the killing, Richardson phoned a male friend of his wife from her youth, with whom she had got in touch, and told him: "You are going to feel like I feel in a couple of hours' time."