Woman slept next to dead husband for 3 weeks – what police found was chilling | UK | News
The court announced that the woman who slept next to her husband’s dead body for three weeks was imprisoned.
Sally Smithson, 61, slept next to the body of her husband John Blackwell at their Oxford home. The 71-year-old man died of a suspected heart attack three weeks ago. The court heard Blackwell was found on her back and naked on her bedroom floor.
Smithson was sentenced to 14 months in prison after pleading guilty to obstructing the lawful and proper burial of a body. Sentencing, Judge Michael Gledhill KC said: “You had been sleeping next to his lifeless body for nearly three weeks. This was a very grave and serious crime. It was an affront to standards of public decency.” The sun reported.
Oxford Crown Court also heard Blackwell died around October 1 last year but his body was not found by police until October 21.
Prosecutor Charles Ward-Jackson said Blackwell suffered from a serious heart condition. He also told the court that the relationship between Smithson and Blackwell was “turbulent” and involved “drunken arguments and domestic violence”.
According to The Sun, Mr Ward-Jackson added: “Police found his body on the bedroom floor. He was supine and naked. He was in an advanced stage of decomposition. There was no sign of injury. The television was on and he had been asleep in bed. The defendant had been asleep in bed for three weeks.”
