British woman gets 5 years in prison for killing her husband, also British

48 year old British woman, who is named as Michell Cornell, has been given a five year jail sentence for homicide by the Court in Málaga for killing her 57 year old husband David, also British in Benalmádena in July 2010. The sentence was announced on Thursday and follows a guilty verdict in her trial by jury. She also has to pay 60,000 € in compensation to her husband’s inheritors. The husband had allegedly been ill-treating the woman for the past 18 years of marriage. On the day of the killing the woman is described as being in a ‘very excited’ state after have drunk a great deal of alcohol. She picked up a kitchen knife, went to the bedroom and stabbed her husband in the clavicle, causing his death. He had also been drinking heavily. Seeing there was a lot of blood she went to the lounge to phone for help, but she could not find the emergency number because of the state of shock she was in. Finally she went to the neighbours for help. Michelle can now make an appeal to the TSJA Andalucía High Court if she wishes. Despite the 18 years of abuse in the home the sentence explains that the woman showed ‘the clear wish to cause the death of her husband, at least during the moment of the aggression’, but both the jury and the Málaga court consider that she acted because of the ‘well-founded fear’ produced by the partial overriding of her own will. The court considered that looking at the situation lived by the woman during the years of marriage, she could have expected new aggression from her husband. The five year term was chosen as there was only one stab wound and no other signs of violence, the fear suffered by the accused, and the state of drunkenness she was in at the time. The couple lived in Urbanisation Torremuelle in Benalmádena.