A British man has been sentenced to 10 years in jail after he rigged his wife up to a homemade electric chair after she asked him for a divorce.
As the Guardian is reporting, Andrew Castle of Knott End-on-Sea, Lancashire, began building an electric chair in his garage in an attempt to murder his wife Margaret when she handed him divorce papers after 18 years of marriage. On March 5, after inviting his wife into the garage, the 61-year-old Castle sat Margaret in the makeshift metal device and tried to knock her unconscious as he connected what is described as an exposed circuit of live and neutral wires to a power source.
"It was a distressing case," detective Martin Clague is quoted as saying. "He intended to kill his wife and had set plans in place to do this. It is rare for someone to attempt to kill their wife, or anyone, by these means."
Neighbors tell the Telegraph that the trouble began earlier this year. 'We couldn't believe it when we heard what happened...Margaret is a lovely person and everyone is very distressed that this happened," one said. "We always thought they were a lovely couple who enjoyed going on walking and cruising holidays together."
After the altercation, Margaret, who is also 61, was treated for minor head injuries at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary. Meanwhile, Andrew was found in the back garden with self-inflicted knife wounds to his wrists after grabbing a blade from the kitchen, police officials say.
After claiming he was ''simply unable to cope'' with the divorce and found it ''overwhelming," Castle plead guilty to attempted murder and received a sentence of 10 years earlier this week. A psychiatric report concluded he had obsessive compulsive disorder and an adjustment disorder, the Guardian reports.
Meanwhile, Margaret -- who has accused her husband of being "domineering and controlling" -- said: "It is by sheer good fortune that I am here today. I now wish to be left in peace and I am determined to move forward on my own terms."