Drunken husband who stabbed wife to death for mocking size of his manhood is cleared

Drunken husband who stabbed wife to death for mocking size of his manhood is cleared of murder

Posted on December 13, 2013
A drunken husband who stabbed his wife to death after she mocked the size of his manhood has been cleared of murder.

John Clinton, 52, who had already admitted the manslaughter of Paula, his wife of 25 years, wept as he was cleared of the more serious charge after a week long trial.

Clinton, who ran a concrete moulding company, had always admitted killing mum-of-two Paula Clinton at their home on Felsted Drive, Aintree, before trying to take his own life.

Police and prosecutors were convinced he was a violent bully who killed her in a rage.

But he maintained he was not responsible for his actions by reason of diminished responsibility, and it took jurors just under three hours of deliberation to decide they accepted his story and return a unanimous not guilty verdict.

During the trial Clinton had said he had a drink problem and trouble sleeping for which he had visited the doctor on the day of the killing.

Crying and sniffing almost constantly he said he had been at both the Heysel and Hillsborough disasters as a Liverpool FC fan and had been badly affected by the death of his mother, whose grave he visited every day.

He said that throughout his marriage he would wet the bed when he had had a drink and that his wife forced him to move into the spare room.

Clinton said she would hit him occasionally as well as making him sit at the “children’s table”, bought his clothes for him and even put their house up for sale without telling him.

Weeks before the killing she said she wanted a divorce after he was arrested for drink driving and the day she died she had visited the Citizens Advice Bureau for independent information about the family finances.

He said they argued when he returned home from the pub with her calling him a “scruffy person” and mocking his manhood so he snatched up a knife and stabbed her four times in the back as she tried to flee.

Alone in the house he cut his own throat but was saved by paramedics.

Paula Clinton, who worked at the Giro in Bootle for 30 years and was described by her family as an “amazing woman”, staggered outside crying for help but died from blood loss within minutes.

Clinton will be sentenced on Tuesday.