Pensioner unlawfully killed wife over imagined debt

Hugh Webber fatally stabbed his wife Angela at their home in the village of Dunster, Somerset

A 79-year-old man who falsely believed he was going to be evicted over an imagined £22,000 debt unlawfully killed his wife, a court has ruled.

Hugh Webber used two knives to stab Angela, 77, 15 times in Dunster, Somerset, in October 2020.

He had told neighbours that he owed money to a loan shark but police later found he did not have any debts.

On Thursday a jury at Bristol Crown Court found that she had been unlawfully killed.

The defendant was ruled unfit to stand trial for murder. The jury took just 30 minutes to reach their conclusion.

Judge William Hart adjourned sentencing until Friday afternoon.

Hospital order

He said: "The recommendation of the psychiatrists is that he be made subject of a hospital order with a restriction order without limit of time."

During the hearing, the court heard that Webber called 999 at about 03:00 GMT on 29 October and told the operator: "Yesterday, I just tried to murder my wife."

She died shortly after the attack, despite the attempts of paramedics.

Their former neighbour Graham Lamacraft told the jury about a conversation he had with the defendant days before the attack.

Loan shark

"He mentioned there was a loan shark after him who he owed £22,000 to, and he would be out of his house at the end of the week," he said.

"He said at the time he thought he had paid him off.

"This was a fixation in his mind and this was a fact."

Andrew Langdon QC, prosecuting, said: "That anxiety, it later transpired, was irrational.

"There was no debt and no threat of them being homeless."

Mr Lamacraft said he also had a conversation with Mrs Webber who told him, "'I think he is losing it,'" the jury heard.

"She said she had tried to get him to go to the doctor but he had refused. She didn't seem anxious," added Mr Lamacraft.

"In conversations with Hugh, he seemed to have lost all sense of reason and didn't seem to take on board anything I was saying in regard to the way he would be evicted."

The defendant, of St George's Street, Dunster, did not attend the proceedings.