Husband let wife starve to death

LONDON (Reuters) - A 71-year-old man was jailed for 18 months on Friday after letting his wife starve to death.

William Pottinger was sentenced after pleading guilty to manslaughter at an earlier hearing at Reading Crown Court.

The court had heard his wife Gillian, who suffered from a mental illness, weighed just 4-1/2 stone (28.5kg) when her body was found.

The 61-year-old stopped going out of the house in about 2003 after developing an ailment that meant she totally lost the ability to look after herself.

She wasted away on a flea-ridden sofa in her home at Beecham Road, Reading, in June 2006.

Pottinger, a retired binman, had regularly gone to the pub and bookmakers during this time and had failed to ask for help for his wife.

Her grandson, Bradley Lee, said in a statement after the case: "She would give you the last pound she had in her purse. Why was she taken away from us?"

Senior Investigating Officer Detective Superintendent George Turner said: "The circumstances of Mrs Pottinger's death are both shocking and tragic in equal measure.

"Bill Pottinger's conviction and sentencing for manslaughter has ensured his part in Mrs Pottinger's death has finally been acknowledged."

(Reporting by Avril Ormsby; Editing by Steve Addison)