A pensioner who killed his wife by slitting her throat has revealed how the couple planned a suicide pact together.

Graham Mansfield, 73, from Hale, Greater Manchester, walked free from court on Thursday despite being convicted of the manslaughter of Dyanne Mansfield, 71.

Jurors opted for the alternative conviction as they cleared him of murder, and the judge gave him a two year suspended sentence.

Mr Justice Goose said he was ‘entirely satisfied’ that the defendant had acted out of ‘love’ and ‘compassion’ towards his spouse.

Mansfield’s wife was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in October 2020, and the plan for a suicide pact began when the pair returned from hospital.

He asked her whether she would be willing for him to kill her if ‘things got too bad’, jurors at Manchester Crown Court heard.

By the time of March last year, Dyanne said she was in unbearable pain and told her husband: ‘I’ve had enough, I can’t take anymore.’

On March 22, they drove to find a ‘quiet’ and ‘convenient’ place to carry out the pact, but instead decided to use their garden the following day.

In the preceding days, Mansfield started making plans including cancelling the papers, the milk delivery and the window cleaner, emptying the freezer and tidying the house.

The couple spent their final moments ‘crying and telling each other how much we loved one another’, the court was told.

At around 5pm on the fateful day, Dyanne had a glass of red wine, while Mansfield had a can of lager and a whisky and lemonade.

Afterwards, they both walked to the back of the garden where two chairs were arranged next to each other.

He asked ‘Are you ready?’, to which his wife replied ‘Yes, I won’t make a noise’, jurors heard.

He then walked behind the chair she was sat in and slit her throat with a Stanley knife.

Mansfield then tried to kill himself but instead fainted. He called the police the next day and explained everything that had happened.

Officers found Dyanne slumped in a chair at the bottom of their garden. A note left nearby addressed to police read: ‘We have decided to take our own lives.’

The couple first met at a pub in Wythenshawe on New Year’s Eve in 1974 and married each other six years later.

According to Dyanne, it was a long and happy marriage and the couple enjoyed activities together including walking, gardening and cycling.

From his home, Mansfield told the Manchester Evening News about the suicide pact the couple made.

He told his wife ‘I can’t live without you Dyanne’ and said he agreed to killing her on ‘one condition’ – that he ‘would have to go with her’.

‘In a funny way it gave me strength. I knew I was dying as well. I could focus on that,’ he added.

‘Dyanne was a wonderful person. She was my whole world. We didn’t need anybody else. We just needed one another. We had a wonderful life together.’

Recalling the horrific moment he slit his wife’s throat, Mansfield said: ‘It went against every fibre of my body.

‘I ran round to the front of the chair. I said “What have I done?” I sat next to her, put my arm round her and told I loved her.’

Mansfield eventually faced a four day murder trial at Manchester Crown Court and jurors took just 90 minutes to deliver their verdict.

He says he felt ‘elation’ when the sentence was passed, but doesn’t believe the case should have got to court in the first place.

Mansfield has called for euthanasia to be legalised in the UK and said if the Covid lockdown hadn’t stopped international travel, they would have considered going to Dignitas in Switzerland.

He added: ‘We have done nothing wrong. We didn’t need permission from other people. It was our decision. I killed her with love.

‘If someone is terminally ill, if they’re in pain, what’s wrong with saying I don’t want to live any more?’

He called Euthanasia a ‘humane and sensible way to do things’, adding: ‘The law meant we had to resort to this barbaric method.’

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