Pensioner who tried to kill wife jailed for four years

A PENSIONER who tried to murder his wheelchair-bound wife by smothering her with a pillow has been jailed after a judge ruled that he was still a danger to her.

John Millar was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday for the attempted murder of his 65-year-old wife, Phyllis.

The court heard that the 67-year-old attempted to kill the grandmother-of-two in their Ravelston Gardens home only hours after asking her if she "wanted to live".

But Mrs Millar, a multiple sclerosis sufferer who now lives in a nursing home, still wanted to continue with their marriage despite the attack.

Judge Lady Smith ruled that Millar had a "moderate risk" of re-offending, but with a "very high risk" of causing harm if he did so.

The judge, who called for reports to see if Millar could be spared jail to continue looking after his wife, said his attitudes "condone spousal assault", while she branded his failure to give a reason for attacking his wife as "worrying".

Lady Smith said Millar, who was his wife's sole carer, had also displayed earlier violence and an inability to control stress when he committed assaults on his teenage step-daughters for being "disrespectful", and set fire to a lab building where he worked as a technician in 1991.

Yesterday's court hearing heard that Millar had violated the terms of his bail by repeatedly contacting his wife at the care home and failing to live at his own bail address.

Lady Smith said that Mrs Millar's social worker and her manager "do not feel that it is either acceptable or advisable for you to resume your role as your wife's carer, even if outside care were to be provided as well".

Mrs Millar fought for her life when her husband appeared in the bedroom and tried to kill her with a pillow following a trivial argument over a missed social occasion.

The Navy veteran later tried to claim it would have been a mercy killing. "I thought it would be a good thing to do at the time . . . for both of us," he told police.

But a neighbour told the Evening News that Millar has told other residents that he had made a suicide pact with his wife.

Lady Smith told Millar yesterday: "Far from acting in a caring fashion towards your wife, without provocation and for no apparent reason, you quite deliberately tried to kill her."

Millar had pleaded guilty to attempted murder. Mum-of-three Mrs Millar was diagnosed as suffering from multiple sclerosis in 1984.