Husband 'tried to kill wife in her sleep in murder-suicide' due to lockdown money troubles

A wife whose husband tried to kill her in her sleep after they lost their jobs 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 lockdowns, while he lost his job as an electrical sales consultant after being furloughed.

The father-of-two ran up debt "coming out of their ears", so attempted to end both their lives and "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 remain a loving couple and Mrs Sawyer has always insisted she did not want to press charges.

Sentencing the grandfather, Judge Paul Dugdale told him: "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. 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, Wiltshire.

"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.

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

Sawyer took "all the responsibility of financial struggles" despite being a "worrier" himself. This culminated in near-tragic events in the early hours of 16 February 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."

Mrs Sawyer had told police: "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."

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 started "slashing" his own wrists.

The court heard Sawyer had inflicted a 10cm "gaping" wound with a Stanley knife, which has left his wife 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."

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" and that her husband "would have done this from a place of love".

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".

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Defence barrister Mark Ashley told the court: "This is a case that is really quite exceptional. It is a genuine situation of complete hopelessness."

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."

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

He 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."

The impact of COVID on mental health

A recent report by the Centre for Personal Financial Wellbeing at Aston University highlighted "strong evidence to support the connection between mental health difficulties and financial challenges" as a result of COVID lockdowns.

It said that "people facing financial challenges such as debt were more likely to experience suicidal thoughts or feelings".

The authors also found that evidence researched demonstrated that the pandemic and the cost of living crisis have significantly worsened mental health and financial challenges in the UK.

One in four people experienced a mental health problem for the first time during the pandemic, and the proportion of people reporting mental health challenges has increased from 21% to 30% since 2018.

Andy Lymer, director at the Center for Personal Financial Wellbeing, said: "The relationship between mental health and financial challenges is considered to be a complex cycle, where chronic stressors like financial hardship deplete psychological reserves, making it harder to overcome future challenges.

"The widely held perception that financial difficulties stem from personal responsibility failure reinforces feelings of blame or inadequacy, adding to the stigma associated with both mental health and financial challenges."

The report emphasised an urgent need for targeted support and interventions for the affected communities by policymakers, researchers and healthcare professionals.