Turbulent relationship ends in manslaughter

John Wickham. Photo / Supplied.

Dale Wickham sought help from a woman's refuge after husband John throttled her.

On another occasion, police were called out when a row between the couple descended into a physical fight.

The relationship had deteriorated to the point that Wickham kept two shotguns in her bedroom.

And on October 10 last year, she used one of them to shoot her husband after he threw a bottle of spirits at her and threatened to "bash her head with a brick".

Yesterday, in the High Court at Auckland, a jury found Wickham not guilty of murdering her husband but guilty of manslaughter.

Crown prosecutor Ross Burns told the jury that Wickham - who suffers from multiple sclerosis - was angry and hurt that her husband of 42 years was about to leave her.

The couple had been sleeping in separate rooms and there was evidence from John Wickham's lawyer that he had drawn up an agreement for their assets to be split.

Defence lawyers Sanjay Patel and Michele Wilkinson-Smith argued that the killing was self-defence.

Dale Wickham, 62, kept one of the shotguns, loaded, in her bed and the other hidden in her bedroom.

By October 10, she had also armed herself with a hammer and an antique knife.

The court heard Mr Wickham had grabbed his wife around the throat and thrown a bottle of spirits at her before she went to her bedroom and got a shotgun. She then confronted him, saying: "John, you've got to leave, leave the place, just go."

The police were on their way but Mr Wickham didn't leave. Instead, he laughed and told his wife: "I'll gut you like a fish."

According to police interviews, Mr Wickham also said: "You're so weak, all I have to do is throw your body in the pool. No one will find you."

The defendant later told police that she remembered pointing the weapon at her husband but did not recall pulling the trigger.

Officers arrived minutes later to find Mr Wickham face down, dead. A shotgun wound had passed through his breast plate, damaging his aorta, stomach, kidneys and liver.

It was not been the first time police had been called to the couple's home in West Auckland.

Two constables gave evidence during the trial of being called there on New Year's Day last year.

Dale Wickham had found $8000 hidden in a file and taken the money. Her husband found it missing and got angry. As she was preparing lunch, he grabbed her around the throat, and the pair fell to the kitchen floor.

Wickham told Constable Hayley Kenna she had "no muscle" and could not fight back.

Constable Ian Carter said he spoke to Mr Wickham at the same time in a separate room.

He said Mr Wickham told him he had slipped on the kitchen floor and put his arms out, dragging his wife to the floor.

Mr Carter said he asked Mr Wickham if he had grabbed his wife's neck. He replied that his hands "must have gone around her somewhere".

"She declined to make any complaint and she was adamant that she did not want John Wickham removed or charged," the constable said.

He said Wickham asked him if he could see marks on her throat.

"I said, Yes, but I've also seen you rubbing your neck'," Mr Carter told the court.

Under cross-examination from Ms Wilkinson-Smith, Mr Carter confirmed that Wickham's rubbing of her throat was consistent with her having a throat injury.

"If someone wanted to fake marks on their neck, they wouldn't do it in front of a police officer?" Ms Wilkinson-Smith asked. Mr Carter said: "No, you would not."

Mr Patel cited evidence from a friend of the accused who told the court that Mr Wickham had said he planned to help his wife commit suicide when her multiple sclerosis worsened.

"But the worrying thing about that is that Dale and John never discussed it."

Mr Patel also quoted a conversation between Mr Wickham and a friend in which Mr Wickham is alleged to have said: "If you can put an animal out of its misery, you should be able to put a human being out of its misery."

Mr Patel said the defendant "saw the gun as something she could use to keep her safe".

Mr Burns argued that Wickham had other choices. She could have hidden in the bathroom, he said.

"She knew police would be there shortly. By the time police arrived - within three minutes of her call - her husband was dead on the floor of a shotgun wound."

He said Wickham was called names and verbally abused by her husband but that did not give her the right to shoot him dead.

"He's not just a pale figure in a photograph. It is a real human life that has been taken."

Wickham has been remanded on bail for sentencing next month.

Mr Burns said the Crown did not oppose bail but that did not mean a jail sentence would not be sought.

Outside court, Mr Patel said he and Ms Wilkinson-Smith would seek a non-custodial sentence for their client.

Crying out for dead husband

Lying in hospital while a jury decided her future, a confused Dale Wickham called out for the man she had shot dead.

Wickham's lawyer, Sanjay Patel, visited his client in hospital yesterday to tell her she had been found not guilty of murdering her husband, John, but guilty of manslaughter.

Wickham was not in the High Court at Auckland to hear the verdict. On Wednesday, she collapsed and was given oxygen and taken to hospital by paramedics.

The 62-year-old has had multiple sclerosis for the past 20 years and Mr Patel said a neurologist was still determining whether she has suffered a stroke.

He said that in hospital, Wickham lost consciousness and when she came to, with friends and family around her, she asked for her husband.

Mr Patel said he was not personally present but was told his client was "a little confused and upset".