A father-of-four who strangled and smothered his wife with a pillow in their Wirral home has been jailed for seven years.

David Sadler loved Jill, his wife of almost 40 years, but became fixated with the view that she had hastened the death of their terminally ill daughter Joanne.

After returning home after drinking about ten pints of lager 62-year-old Sadler went to the bedroom where she lay sleeping and launched the fatal sustained attack on her.

He denied murder and a jury on Friday cleared him of that offence on the grounds of lack of intent. He had admitted manslaughter before the trial began and Judge Andrew Menary, QC, today sentenced him for that offence.

“In the early hours of Sunday February 18 you brutally strangled, suffocated and killed your wife Jill Sadler,” he said.

“I recognise that you now deeply regret what you did…you have lost the companionship, care, love and attention of a wife who you loved.”

Judge Menary said that while Mrs Sadler “maybe drank too much on occasions and could overly loud, antagonistic and embarrassing but was also plainly a loving, caring and considerate wife, mother and grandmother.

“I heard nothing to suggest the way she behaved most of the time was any different from the way plenty of other people behave. She may have had a bubbly, outgoing, confident personality and wore the trousers but this is hardly a character flaw.”

Liverpool Crown Court heard that Sadler’s father died last year and their 34-year-old daughter Joanne died in January. While terminally ill she stated in her will that her children should be brought up by a friend and not her parents and her 58-year-old mum reacted badly to that news.

Her daughter banned her from her bedside and Mrs Sadler, who regretted what she had done, struggled to forgive herself and meanwhile her husband believed she had hastened Joanne’s death or made her end more difficult.

“This became your fixed view and was your drunken motivation for killing your wife .. the deep resentment that she had caused or contributed to Joanne’s suffering and death. In drink you attacked her while she was alone and in bed and utterly defenceless.”

She suffered 50 injuries to her head, face, neck and abdomen in the attack at their home in Wastdale Drive, Moreton, and the judge said it was clearly a sustained attack with him manually strangling her and using a pillow to smother her.

“She fought desperately to save her life... she would have known and experienced the horror that she was going to die and that the person who was responsible was her husband,” said Judge Menary.

“Your state of drunkenness will have played a major role in your behaviour that night but that cannot be any excuse. I have no doubt that you loved your wife and now regret and cannot believe what you have done but the loss you have caused is enormous.”

Many relatives were in the public gallery and impact statements from some were given to the judge speaking of their love for the couple. Sadler, a hardworking man with no previous convictions, wiped away a tear as he was led to the cells.

Detective Inspector Siobhan Gainer said: "This was a truly horrific incident.

"Mr and Mrs Sadler had been out drinking the night before and Mrs Sadler had returned home a few hours before her husband. She was then killed in her own bed.

"Mr Sadler admitted manslaughter on the grounds of lack of intent.

"No prison sentence will bring Mrs Sadler back but I hope that now the court case is over it means that Mrs Sadler’s family and friends will be able to move on with the rest of their lives."