Husband, 69, jailed for three years for trying to kill his wife in botched murder-suicide attempt

A wife whose husband tried to kill her in her sleep after they lost their jobs due to Covid lockdowns and ran up £25,000 in debt said he had done it ‘from a place of love’.

Karen Sawyer, 61, was sleeping when ‘gentle giant’ Andrew Sawyer, 69, came up to bed to give her a cuddle before he slashed her wrist and said ‘I’ll stay with you until the end and then I’ll do me’.

Mrs Sawyer, who has been married to her husband for 43 years, had lost the hair salon she ran due to Covid while he lost his job as an electrical sales consultant after being furloughed. 

The father-of-two had taken responsibility of the family’s finances but had debt ‘coming out of their ears’, so he decided he wanted to end both their lives to ‘free’ them from mortgage payments, credit card bills and a debt management plan.

Having admitted a single charge of attempted murder, Sawyer was jailed for three years and 10 months. However, the court heard they remained a loving couple and Mrs Sawyer had always insisted she did not want to press charges.

Sentencing him, Judge Paul Dugdale told the grandfather: ‘It is not worth ending your life because you can’t afford the mortgage. Having each other is so much more important than having a house.

‘At the end of the day, financial problems are that. It is money – it is not life and death. What you need in life is life and love. You can’t have love without life.’

‘What you need, needed and still need – and will have in the future – is the love of someone who is sitting over there (Mrs Sawyer)

‘You have all of life to look forward to. It is not worth ending your life because you can’t afford the mortgage.’

Prosecuting, Kerry Maylin, told Winchester Crown Court that the couple had been happily married for 43 years and lived in Trowbridge, Wiltshere.

‘The overall consensus from the family was that it had been a happy, mutually supportive marriage and provided a stable family home,’ she said.

Sawyer had worked as an electrical sales consultant locally, before being put on furlough and and eventually let go.

He secured a role as a delivery driver for the NHS to try to help make ends meet, but his wife lost her hairdressing salon in the summer of 2022 as a result of Covid.

Ms Maylin continued: ‘It is clear the loss of his permanent job and their issues put considerable financial strain on the couple.’

In their ‘traditional’ relationship, Sawyer took ‘all the responsibility of financial struggles’ despite being a ‘worrier’ himself. This culminated in near-tragic events in the early hours February 16 this year.

‘His daughter described him as a gentle giant and thoughtful’ Ms Maylin added.

‘He’d never shown any aggression either to her mother or anyone else. He would buy her flowers or take her for a meal when she was upset.

Ms Maylin explained: ‘[Mrs Sawyer] said: “He held both my hands with his and then I felt something that wasn’t a pain as such but I thought that’s not right’ – he had cut her wrist”.’

Sawyer then hugged his wife and said ‘I’ll stay with you until the end and then I’ll do me’.

However, Mrs Sawyer was able to phone for an ambulance at 3am, and locked herself in the bathroom as he he started ‘slashing’ his own wrists.

The court heard Sawyer had inflicted a 10cm ‘gaping’ wound with a Stanley knife, which has left her with no feeling in her hand from halfway up her palm.

Police officers who attended the ‘blood stained’ scene heard Sawyer say to his wife: ‘Sorry darling, I thought it would be the end of all our problems.’

The court heard he had even turned off utilities such as gas, water and heating as he thought ‘it would be the end of it’.

Ms Maylin detailed a ‘heartrending’ conversation overheard by emergency staff: ‘He said ‘I’m so sorry’.

‘She said “I know you are darling” and he said “you’re the best wife I could ever have wished for”.’

Mrs Sawyer did not give a subsequent statement to police but told officers at the time of the incident she thought her husband was ‘at the depths of despair’.

The court heard Sawyer was struggling to pay their £800 a month ‘interest only’ mortgage, had credit card debts of £25,000 and a ‘debt management plan’ – which he described as a ‘financial mess’.

At the scene, he told officers: ‘We’ve run out of money, simple as that. Of all the millions of sperm to be released and I had to be the b***** first.’

Mrs Sawyer told police at the scene her husband ‘would have done this from a place of love’.

When he was interviewed, he said he was in a ‘financial mess’ and thought he was doing ‘a kind thing, out of kindness’ to ‘free them from the debt’.

The court heard he told police he ‘didn’t see it as murder’ because they would die together and had ‘debt coming out of their ears’.

Of the night in question, Ms Maylin said: ‘He told police he felt at peace with what he was doing and muffled her screaming to stop neighbours hearing and coming to help her.

‘He didn’t want her to get help, he wanted her to die. He wanted them both dead.’

Sawyer’s barrister Mark Ashley told the court: ‘This is a case that is really quite exceptional. It is a genuine situation of complete hopelessness.’

Of Sawyer’s family, Mr Ashley added: ‘If they had a magic wand, they would ask that he come home today. They love him.’

Jailing Sawyer, who wept in the dock, Judge Dugdale told him: ‘I accept when you cut your wife’s wrist you were in a desperate place.

‘You were undoubtedly suffering from a depressive disorder, which made it difficult for you to work out where you were in that moment of your life.

‘Your financial situation had got to such a desperate situation there was no way out of it. You decided the only way out was to end both of your lives.

‘The thing is, that wasn’t your decision to make and that’s the thing about this case that sticks – you don’t have the right to decide what happens to someone else’s life and that is the error you made.

‘I accept the error was made when you were under a supreme amount of pressure and subject to a depressive disorder, but a lot of that was because you had taken on that financial burden… without sharing it.’

He noted Sawyer had shown remorse for what he had done, had been a man of ‘exemplary conduct’ and an ‘outstanding father’.

Judge Dugdale added: ‘That love that your family have for you has enabled them to forgive you and look forward to the time you have when you come home.

‘Having each other is so much more important than having a house. You need to make sure that never happens again.’