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UK man let wife starve to death
28/03/2008 21:15 - (SA)
London - A 71-year-old man was jailed
for 18 months on Friday after letting his wife starve to death.
William Pottinger was sentenced after pleading guilty to
manslaughter at an earlier hearing at Reading Crown Court.
The court had heard his wife Gillian, who suffered from a
mental illness, weighed just 28.5kg when her body
was found.
The 61-year-old stopped going out of the house in about 2003
after developing an ailment that meant she totally lost the
ability to look after herself.
She wasted away on a flea-ridden sofa in her home at Beecham
Road, Reading, in June 2006.
Pottinger, a retired binman, had regularly gone to the pub
and bookmakers during this time and had failed to ask for help
for his wife.
Her grandson, Bradley Lee, said in a statement after the
case: "She would give you the last pound she had in her purse.
Why was she taken away from us?"
Senior Investigating Officer Detective Superintendent George
Turner said: "The circumstances of Mrs Pottinger's death are
both shocking and tragic in equal measure.
"Bill Pottinger's conviction and sentencing for manslaughter
has ensured his part in Mrs Pottinger's death has finally been
acknowledged."
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