Home detention for killing husband

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A woman found guilty of her husband's manslaughter was sentenced to 12 months home detention at the High Court in Auckland today.  

Dale Wickham, 62, was found guilty in October of her husband's manslaughter. 

Wickham pleaded not guilty to murder at the trial, and the jury accepted she had killed her husband, John Wickham, accidentally.  

The manslaughter occurred on 10 October 2009, when Dale Wickham made a 111 call saying she was being assaulted by her husband. 

His body was found with a shotgun wound to the chest, in the lounge of their shared West Auckland home. 

She told the police she killed him because he ''tried to throttle me again''.

The Crown argued at trial the killing was deliberate, and she killed John Wickham because he was trying to leave her, after 42 years of marriage. 

But the jury accepted Dale Wickham killed her husband accidentally, although rejecting the defence's case that it was in self-defence, after he pushed her over, threw a bottle of spirits at her, and threatened to ''gut [her] like a fish". 

Her lawyer, Michele Wilkinson-Smith, said at trial Wickham had put up with years of abuse from her husband, who had made threats to kill her by hitting her with a brick and putting her body in the pool to cover it up. 

Dale Wickham suffers from multiple sclerosis. 

Her defence said on 10 October last year her husband attacked her and she was too weak to do anything about it.  

She called the police, then went into her bedroom to get one of two shotguns, which she slept with, and shot John Wickham. 

Justice Rebecca Ellis told the court a starting sentence for Dale Wickham would have been three and a half years in prison, but she had reduced this due to the mitigating factors of Wickham's obvious remorse, and her illness.

She said a prison sentence would be more harsh on Wickham than most, given her multiple sclerosis.  

She also said it was clear Wickham is her own harshest critic, and is suffering from intense remorse over what she did.

Justice Ellis acknowledged it was a lesser sentence than would usually be the case for manslaughter, but cautioned, "home detention is a real punishment that involves a severe restriction of liberty.”  

No victim impact statements were presented to the court, but Justice Ellis said it was clear that Dale Wickham herself was a victim in the case. 

"Your husband has lost his future, his life. That is something that cannot be given back. It seems to me the other victims here are you, John’s friends and your children and grandchildren.''

Wickham’s defence lawyer, Sanjay Patel, told the court there had a been a rift in the family because of the events of the case.  

Justice Ellis told Wickham she had many friends, including John’s best friends, who had offered their house as a home detention address.

She said it was extraordinarily unlikely Wickham would ever reoffend, and she had never been a threat to the community.  

She said the crime had only occurred because of the tumultuous history between Dale Wickham and her husband John.

- © Fairfax NZ News