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Islington carer Joyce Evans spared jail over killing | |
(34 minutes later) | |
A grandmother who strangled her terminally ill former partner has been given a suspended jail sentence. | |
Joyce Evans, 69, killed 66-year-old former soldier Colin Ballinger at her home in New Orleans Walk, Islington, north London, last July. | |
She was found guilty of manslaughter at a previous hearing at the Old Bailey. | |
Judge Gerald Gordon said Evans, who has depression, should not have been left to provide the "arduous care" the dying man needed. | |
Evans, who has served what would be equivalent to a 19-month jail sentence on remand, was given a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, coupled with three years' supervision. | |
'Getting on my nerves' | |
The judge told her: "You had to provide constant and arduous care in increasingly difficult circumstances. | |
"With the enormous benefit of hindsight and knowledge, far more active intervention was necessary to get you out of the situation you were in. | |
"But it has to be said that the main reason that did not happen was that you never really revealed the scale of the problem to others." | |
The court heard Evans put pressure on Mr Ballinger's neck and put a bag over his head, before telling a neighbour: "I think I've killed Colin. He was getting on my nerves." | |
Evans, who has arthritis, became Mr Ballinger's sole carer after he was diagnosed with alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver. | |
She had been reluctantly caring for the former soldier for six months and had considered killing herself before she killed Mr Ballinger, the court heard. | |
Psychiatrist Dr Piyal Sen told the Old Bailey: "She felt trapped with no way out." | |
Richard Carey-Hughes QC, for Evans, said: "She was probably the last person in the world to become his carer." | |
In April, Evans was cleared of murder by a jury but was convicted of manslaughter, which she denied. |