Man who killed wife imprisoned for seconds

Press, 29 August 1979, Page 9

Man who killed wife imprisoned for seconds

NZPA Sydney A 76-year-old retired plumber was sentenced to only seconds of imprisonment in Sydney on Monday for killing his wife by cutting her throat with a carving knife. Mr Justice Carmichael sentenced Frederick Archibald Bourne, of Waroonga, to imprisonment until the rising of the court, which occurred seconds later. The judge quoted Bourne as having said that his. 75-year-old wife was to go into a nursing home and would not have been able to cope. He quoted Bourne as having said: “She didn’t mix — she wouldn’t be able to take IL

“I thought this was the best way for both of us.”

Bourne appeared in the Supreme Court and pleaded not guilty to having murdered his wife, Catherine Margaret Bourne, at their home in January this year. He pleaded guilty to her manslaughter. Detective Senior Constable Paul Fuller told the court the couple had been married for 55 years and had never been separated. He said Bourne put his wife to bed on January 8 but about 1.30 a.m. he got a carving knife from the kitchen and cut her throat. Then he cut his own wrist and throat in an apparent suicide attempt, the detective said.

Next morning, Bourne’s daughter came in, saw them, and called an ambulance. Bourne recovered from his injuries and had been on bail since January. The judge said that the woman’s health and mental ability had declined about seven years before her death. A car accident in September last year broke her hip and made it impossible for her husband to care for her.

Sentencing Bourne he said, “The hopeless, helpless despair of depression led him to this action. The cause of his action was his own irrationality at' his own despair.” Bourne was then free to walk from the court.