Personal injury news

Wife ordered to stay behind bars after killing

A nurse who killed her wheelchair-bound husband with a lethal dose of insulin must be locked up for at least 15 years, a court has ruled.

41-year-old Deborah Winzar was jailed for life in 2000 after a court found her guilty of the murder, and a judge has now officially set her tariff, insisting that she is not eligible for release until 2015.

She met her late husband, Dominic McCarthy, when the pair were trainee nurses in the 1980s. They later moved in together but not long after, Mr McCarthy was involved in a serious road traffic accident and left with spinal cord injury.

Paralysed from the waist down, he made a successful car accident claim and was awarded £670,000 in damages. The couple married a year later.

In 1997, Winzar is said to have grown bored of the marriage and injected her husband with insulin, causing his brain to swell. He was rushed to hospital and put on a life support, but his wife soon tampered with the equipment, causing a fatal brain injury.

A six-month trial at Birmingham Crown Court ensued and Winzar was found guilty of her husband's murder. She made repeated appeals against the conviction but each one failed.

The judge's decision to keep her behind bars until 2015 was the result of her latest appeal. The couple had a son, and his father's car accident claim compensation has been put in a trust fund until he is older.