Wife starved to death when husband refused to give her food or water

He denied leaving his wife to die when accused of not intervening because he ‘could not be bothered’ (Picture: MEN)

Killer husband Robert Morgan, who subjected his spouse to cruel abuse, has been jailed for three years after being convicted of manslaughter.

The killer denied his wife water and watched her wither away to just four stone, when she was found covered in her own urine and faeces.

Carlisle Crown Court heard that Dorothy Morgan, 71, had contracted sepsis and gangrene.

She died ten days after she was found by police from acute kidney failure consistent with extreme dehydration and sepsis.

Dorothy’s son, David Holyoak, who was fathered by another man, was also convicted of the same charge.

Robert is jointly accused of his wife’s death alongside David Holyoak, who is her son from another relationship (Picture: Newsquest / SWNS)

David was sentenced to two years and eight months.

The court heard Dorothy’s body was covered in sores and she had patches of ‘dead skin’.

The 71-year-old was so malnourished that her cheeks were sunken.

Robert claimed that his wife was terrified of hospitals and did not want doctors to intervene.

He eventually called 999 when she fell at their home in Cumbria.

Morgan told the operator that his wife had ‘literally tried to starve herself to death’, and ‘looks like something from a death camp’, reported The Sun.

Carlisle Crown Court heard Morgan ‘failed to take care of her basic human needs’.

He claimed he ‘didn’t notice’ the condition his wife was in.

Before Dorothy died on February 4, 2021, she weighed just four and a half stone, and medics said there was evidence she had remained in the same position without moving for some time.

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Detective Superintendent Matt Scott said: ‘Robert and David had a clear duty of care towards Dorothy, and it was clear from her condition and the state of their home that the level of care afforded to Dorothy was woefully short of the most basic standards expected.

‘She was wholly dependent on those family members closest to her for food, water and the most basic of care. Dorothy had limited mobility and was not able to move from the sofa.

‘She was left with a bucket next to the sofa as a toilet, which Dorothy was unable to use in the days leading up to her admission to hospital.’

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