A PENSIONER killed his wife while suffering paranoid psychosis amid fears over her relationship with another man.

Dudley Boakes, 80, attacked Sandra Boakes, 70, his wife of 53 years, believing she had gone to meet a man with whom she had confessed a whirlwind relationship, a court heard.

She died in hospital two days after the attack on April 3 at their home in Grasmere Avenue, Sompting.

Today (Friday) Mr Boakes denied murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, which the prosecution accepted based on psychiatric reports. He was given a hospital order. 

The court heard how the couple, who had three children, seemed “perfect” on the outside but Mrs Boakes had told family she was not as happy in her marriage as she appeared.

Towards the end of 2013 she met a man in church and soon they felt they were “in love with each other,” the court heard.

Mrs Boakes felt “incredibly guilty” about the roughly four-week relationship, prosecutor Alan Kent QC told Lewes Crown Court, and confessed to her husband.

Both she and the other man agreed to have no further contact, but in response to an email from him on April 3, she went to the post office to send him a note reiterating things had to stop.

Mr Boakes later told psychiatrists he was convinced she had gone to meet with the man and feared the pair were planning to harm him.

That evening he attacked her, at first with a wine bottle, calling an ambulance when she was severely injured.

Mr Kent said Mr Boakes had led an “unblemished life” until the attack, working as a sales manager for Otis lift company for 40 years before taking early retirement about 25 years ago.

He added: “He was regarded by those who knew him as an old-fashioned man, an upstanding member of the community.

“His committing any sort of crime was not something that anybody could really comprehend.”

Mr Boakes spoke at the hearing only to say his name and enter his plea.

Judge Anthony Scott-Gall handed him a Section 37 hospital order, meaning he will stay at St Magnus Hospital in Haslemere for treatment and care. 

He noted psychiatrists agreed Mr Boakes was not a danger to the public because the circumstances of the killing were “unique to the defendant's situation at the time” and had “no prospect of repetition”.