NESTON, UK (WJW) — A woman from the United Kingdom has been sentenced to life in prison after murdering her husband using boiling water and sugar.
According to police in Neston, it happened in July 2020. Police said in a press release that the day before the attack, Corinna Smith, 59, was described as angry and very upset over a rumor circulating about her 81-year-old husband, Michael Baines.
According to The Chester Standard, her daughter told her Baines sexually abused children, including her brother, who committed suicide in 2007, when they were children.
The release stated that the next day, she filled a bucket from her garden with boiling water and mixed it with three bags of sugar.
While Baines was sleeping in bed, she poured the water and sugar on his arms and torso. She then went to a nearby home and told the occupant, “I’ve hurt him really bad. I think I’ve killed him.”
The occupant called police, who found Baines in his bed whimpering in pain.
Baines was left with burns to 36% of his body. He was taken to the hospital but died about a month later.
Smith was found guilty of murder in June and was sentenced July 9 to a minimum of 12 years in prison.
In a statement, Detective Chief Inspector Paul Hughes, of Cheshire Constabulary’s Major Crime Directorate said: “Smith killed her husband Michael in such a painful and cruel way. To throw boiling water over someone when they are asleep is absolutely horrific. To also mix three bags of sugar with the water showed the determination she had to cause serious harm.
“The sugar placed into the water makes it vicious. It becomes thicker and stickier and sinks into the skin better. It left Michael in agony and rather than call the emergency services she wasted time by going to a house nine doors away to tell a neighbour, who she wasn’t close to, what she had done.
“Michael was an elderly man who fought for his life after the attack but sadly in the end he passed away. My thoughts continue to be with his family at this incredibly difficult time.”
