Corinna Smith, 59, who was wedded to her husband for 38 years, threw boiling water on her husband for supposedly molesting her children when they were young. Before the attack took place, Corinna was told by her daughter that her husband, Michael Baines, 80, preyed on her and Corinna’s son in the past.
Out of anger, Corinna went on to get a vessel from her lawn and boiled two kettles of water before mixing three bags of sugar in it. The furious mother then went to the room in which her husband was lying asleep and threw the boiling sugar water on top of him.
While her husband began struggling in pain, Corinna runs away from the house to a neighbour’s residence. She told the neighbour that she has hurt her husband really bad and it seems like that she had killed him. Her neighbour then called up the police and ambulance.
When the police reached at the house, they found Michael crying in pain. He said to the police that he is severely burned all over while the skin of his right hands and arm peeling off. He told the police that his wife poured boiling water over him and she wants him to just die.
For the next few weeks, Michael remained at the hospital with 36 per cent of his body covered in burns before dying a month later.
After the incident came to light, Corinna told the police that she accepts that she poured boiling water over her husband with sugar in it. She said that she lost her mind but did not act out of revenge.
Detective Chief Inspector Paul Hughes said in court that Corinna murdered her husband Michael in such a painful and cruel way. Paul said that to throw boiling water over someone when they are asleep is totally terrible. Paul added that to also mix three bags of sugar with the water showed the determination that she had to cause severe injury.
Paul further said that the sugar placed into the water makes it sticky and it becomes thicker and gluey and sinks into the skin better. He said that it left Michael in pain and rather than call the emergency services, his wife wasted time by going to a house nine doors away to tell a neighbour, who she wasn’t close to, what she had done.
Paul concluded that Michael was an old man who battled for his life after the attack but sadly in the end he passed away.
Prosecutors cited that they cannot say whether the accusations against Michael are true but added that Corinna believed them to be correct at the time that she caused the lethal injuries to Michael.
During court proceedings, Judge told Corinna that she reasonably very distressed. She was defined as being livid and fuming at the thought of what had been done to her children.
Corinna was found guilty and was imprisoned for life with a minimum of 12 years.
