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Audrey
HINGSTON
Classification: Homicide
Characteristics: Parricide
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder:
August 29, 2003
Date of arrest:
October 7, 2003
Date of birth: 1923
Victim profile:
Eric Hingston, 83
(her husband)
Method of murder:
Stabbing with knife
Location: Plympton,
Devon, England, United Kingdom
Status:
Pleaded guilty to
manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility. She was
sentenced to two years in jail on March 12, 2004. Released on
October 5, 2004
Husband killer released from jail
BBC.co.uk
Wednesday, 6
October 2004
An 82-year-old woman who stabbed her
husband to death has been released from prison after a year in
custody.
Audrey Hingston, from Plymouth, pleaded guilty in
March to the manslaughter of husband Eric, 83, at the couple's flat in
Plympton in August 2003.
Mrs Hingston appeared at a news conference in
September 2003 blaming burglars for killing her husband but a month
later was arrested and charged.
Members of Mr Hingston's family said they were
unhappy with her sentence.
Husband's health
Mr Hingston's son, James Hingston, said the news of
her release was painful.
He said: "It's upsetting. We thought the sentence
should have been longer because it would give us more time to get over
it. We've just got to get on with our lives now.
"I don't want to ever see her again. I just want
her to stay away from us."
At Plymouth Crown Court in March, Hingston denied
murder, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter on grounds of diminished
responsibility. She was sentenced to two years in jail.
The prosecution said the Hingstons had a happy
marriage, but that Mrs Hingston was frustrated at her husband's
deteriorating health.
Killer, 81, spared longer term
BBC.co.uk
Thursday, 8 April
2004
A Devon MP has failed in his call
for the two-year prison sentence handed to an 81-year-old woman who
killed her husband to be increased.
Conservative MP Gary Streeter had asked the
Attorney General to review Audrey Hingston's sentence for the
manslaughter of her husband Eric, 83.
Mr Streeter told the BBC that, in his opinion, the
sentence was "unduly lenient".
But the Attorney General has refused to refer the
case to the Court of Appeal.
Diminished responsibility
Hingston, of Underwood Road, Plympton, admitted the
manslaughter of her husband at their home in August last year.
Mr Hingston, a retired butcher, was found dead at
the couple's flat.
At the time, she made a public appeal, saying he
had been stabbed to death by burglars after getting out of bed to
confront them.
At Plymouth Crown Court Hingston denied murder, but
pleaded guilty to manslaughter on grounds of diminished
responsibility.
A spokeswoman for Attorney General Lord Goldsmith
said: "I can confirm the Attorney General has made the decision not to
refer the case.
"He did consider it very carefully. It is a
difficult case but he had to look at all the guidelines and his
decision was that the Court of Appeal would not increase the sentence
and, for that reason, the decision was made not to refer it."
Relative's anger
Mr Streeter said: "I regret that decision because I
believe the sentence was unduly lenient and she is a very lucky woman.
"It is the end of the road, but it leaves a bitter
taste in the mouth."
Mr Hingston's daughter in law Sally Hingston, said:
"I feel anger, disappointment and betrayal.
"If someone kills someone they should pay the
price.
"We believe she should have got at least five
years."
She added: "If she was a younger person I am sure
she would have got a longer sentence.
"We have got to accept it, but it has destroyed my
faith in the justice system."
Wife, 81, jailed for killing
Woman admits stabbing she blamed on burglars
The Guardian
Saturday 13 March 2004
An 81-year-old woman was jailed for two years
yesterday for stabbing her sick husband to death as he lay in bed.
Audrey Hingston's plea of not guilty of murder but
guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility was
accepted by Plymouth crown court.
Martin Meeke QC, prosecuting, said Hingston had
first blamed the killing of Eric Hingston, 83, on two burglars she
claimed had broken into their flat in Plympton, Devon, last August.
She then claimed that her husband had committed suicide and that she
had faked the burglary to cover up.
Finally, after being charged with murder, she
confessed to her son when he visited her in custody. She told him:
"OK, I killed him. I'd had enough. I could not take any more of his
illness and having to care for him."
Mrs Justice Hallett told Hingston it was a "sad
day" when a woman of her age and background was in the dock having
confessed to killing her husband and covering her tracks in a
"calculated and convincing way".
"Having covered your tracks, you sustained your
account for some considerable time and considerable detail," she said.
What she had done after killing her husband caused enormous distress
to a lot of people and had wasted a lot of police time.
It was "wicked" of her to give to the police
descriptions of two men she knew as the alleged burglars.
The judge accepted that Hingston was ill and under
considerable pressure - "the kind of pressure none of us would wish to
bear".
"Unfortunately, no one realised when you sought
help for your illness the extent of it."
She said Hingston and her husband had been a
devoted couple.
"I am satisfied this killing of your husband must
be marked by a prison sentence, I feel I have no alternative," she
said.
Earlier, Mr Meeke told the court that the couple
had married in 1985, a second marriage for both of them. They lived
above the butcher's shop run by Mr Hingston's son, James.
By 1999 Mr Hingston's health had deteriorated
significantly and he was awaiting an operation for prostate problems.
His condition caused his wife to be depressed. "She resented the fact
that his condition affected her way of life."
There was evidence she had killing in mind "some
days before the event", Mr Meeke added.
On August 28 Mr Hingston went to bed, and she slept
on the sofa. In the early hours she took a seven-inch knife from the
kitchen and stabbed her husband as he lay in bed.
A man delivering vegetables said he had heard a
"moaning, groaning noise" which was Mr Hingston "breathing his last",
the prosecutor said.
Hingston called an ambulance, saying: 'We have been
attacked and my husband is on the floor. Please come quickly, I think
he is dead."
When the police arrived she described two men she
said had escaped through a window.
On September 4 she gave a news conference appealing
for help in finding the pair who "came into my home and ruined my
life".
Hingston attempted suicide with painkillers on
September 11, saying in a note: "Please catch the terrible people who
ruined my life. I cannot live without Eric."
The defence counsel, Henry Grunwold QC, said the
pressure of looking after her husband had "taken a toll" and she had
become depressed.
Wife, 81, killed husband and invented burglary
cover-up
By Richard Savill - Telegraph.co.uk
March 13, 2004
An 81-year-old woman stabbed her sick husband to
death as he lay in bed and then tried to cover her tracks by claiming
he had been killed by two burglars she said had broken into their
flat, a court was told yesterday.
Audrey Hingston was jailed for two years for the
manslaughter of her 83-year-old husband, Eric, after the court heard
that the police hunt for the "illusory burglars" cost £160,000,
involved 481 hours of house inquiries and 800 statements. Police
visited schools to reassure pupils.
Hingston gave police such accurate descriptions of
two men she had seen while out shopping that they were traced by
detectives and escaped arrest only because they had a cast iron alibi.
Hingston also made a televised appeal to trace the
burglars whom she claimed had stabbed her husband after he got out of
bed to confront them. She told a news conference a month after the
killing last August: "Two men came into my home and ruined my life. My
husband Eric did not deserve this. As a frail man, any resistance he
put up could easily have been overcome by these men."
Mr Hingston, a retired butcher, who was a member of
Winston Churchill's Special Operations Executive during the Second
World War and repeatedly risked his life by flying agents behind enemy
lines in a Lysander light aircraft, was found dead at the couple's
flat in Plympton, Devon.
Hingston took a seven-inch knife from the kitchen
at 1.45am and stabbed her husband in the chest, said Martin Meeke, QC,
prosecuting.
She drove the blade down for its full length,
causing his lung to collapse.
Hingston called an ambulance two hours later,
saying: "We have been attacked and my husband is on the floor. Please
come quickly, I think he is dead."
Mr Meeke said that in order to fake the burglary,
some of her jewellery was put into a black bin liner, drawers
disturbed, a ladder placed outside and a window opened.
At Plymouth Crown Court yesterday, she denied
murder, but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished
responsibility. The court heard that after initially blaming
intruders, she later claimed her husband had committed suicide, and
that she faked the burglary to cover up.
Finally after being charged with murder, she
confessed to her son, Peter Hume, a butcher and former detective, when
he visited her in custody. She told him: "OK, I killed him. I'd had
enough. I couldn't take any more of his illness and having to care for
him."
Mrs Justice Hallett told Hingston it was a "sad
day" that a woman of her age and background was in the dock having
confessed to killing her husband and covering her tracks in a
"calculated and convincing" way.
Mr Meeke said the Hingstons, who had wed 20 years
ago, had a happy marriage but she was frustrated at her husband's
deteriorating health.
Woman, 81, admits killing husband
BBC.co.uk
Friday, 12 March
2004
An 81-year-old woman from Devon has
been jailed for two years for stabbing her husband to death as he
slept.
Audrey Hingston, of Underwood Road, Plympton,
admitted the manslaughter of 83-year-old Eric Hingston at their home
in August last year.
Mr Hingston, a retired butcher, was found dead at
the couple's flat.
At the time, Mrs Hingston made a public appeal,
saying he had been stabbed to death by burglars after getting out of
bed to confront them.
At Plymouth Crown Court on Thursday, Mrs Hingston
denied murder, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter on grounds of
diminished responsibility.
The prosecution said the Hingstons had a happy
marriage, but that Mrs Hingston was frustrated at her husband's
deteriorating health.
Mr Hingston, a former Special Operations pilot who
flew agents behind enemy lines during World War II, had heart problems
and asthma and she had been fed up with caring for him.
The court was told by prosecutor Martin Meeke QC
that Hingston first put the blame for the killing on two burglars she
said had broken into their flat.
Mrs Hingston had told a news conference in
September last year: "Two men came into my home and ruined my life.
"My husband Eric did not deserve this. As a frail
man, any resistance he put up could easily have been overcome by these
two young men."
Confessed to killing
In fact, after she had stabbed him as he lay
sleeping in his bed, she had spent two hours ransacking the flat,
staging the burglary before calling an ambulance.
Then she claimed that her husband had committed
suicide, and she faked the burglary to cover it up.
She finally confessed the killing to her son, a
former detective, after being charged with murder, when he visited her
in custody.
She told him: "OK, I killed him. I'd had enough. I
could not take any more of his illness and having to care for him."
Hingston was told by Mrs Justice Hallett it was a
"sad day" that a woman of her age and background was in the dock
having confessed to killing her husband and covering her tracks in a
"calculated and convincing way".
The judge added it was "wicked" to give
descriptions of two men she knew, claiming they were the burglars.
Unbearable pressure
The men were arrested, but freed because they had
alibis.
The judge went on to say it was also "wicked" to
suggest her husband had committed suicide.
She accepted Hingston was ill and under "the kind
of pressure none of us would wish to bear".
But she said: "I am satisfied this killing of your
husband must be marked by a prison sentence. I feel I have no
alternative."
Mr Hingston's family expressed their disappointment
with the verdict and the sentence.
Sue Thomson, said: "It's disgusting and a farce.
Anyone can fake depression and go out and do what she's done.
"If she can do that kind of thing totally
unprovoked what's she going to do when she's provoked?"
Police told the court they wasted £160,000
investigating the false claims.
Detective Inspector Neil Treaby said after the
case: "It was the most difficult case I have ever handled.
"Initially we thought it was a burlgary, but after
forensic evidence we had to turn the investigation round and start
again."
Man, 85, stabbed to death 'having a go'
By Richard Savill - Telegraph.co.uk
August 30, 2003
An 85-year-old retired butcher who was stabbed to
death after he got out of bed to confront burglars would not have
thought twice about tackling the men and "having a go", his family
told police.
Eric Hingston was found by his wife Audrey, 81,
with a stab wound to the neck in the bedroom of their flat in Plympton,
Devon, at 3.50am yesterday.
Mrs Hingston, who had been sleeping in a separate
room, was woken by noises and was confronted by the burglars when she
went into the bedroom.
The two men fled and she found her husband lying on
the floor.
Mr Hingston, a former Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator,
was taken to hospital but pronounced dead.
The couple shared the flat above a butcher's shop,
which they ran for many years, and is now run by their son.
Police believe the intruders entered and escaped
through the bedroom window, which was above a flat roof.
Mr Hingston, an asthmatic, had left the window open
while he slept, police believe. A search for the murder weapon was
continuing.
Det Chief Insp Tony Carney, who is leading the
investigation, said: "It is a tragedy that this should happen to
elderly people enjoying their retirement. It ranks among the worst
crimes I have seen in 29 years' service."
