Neil Crilley trial: Pensioner accused of killing wife 'totally ashamed'

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Neil CrilleyImage source, Iain McLellan/Spindrift Photo Agency
Image caption,
Neil Crilley denies a charge of culpable homicide

A pensioner accused of killing his wife has sobbed and said he felt totally ashamed for not knowing the pain she was in.

Neil Crilley, 77, said the evidence given by doctors during his trial made him realise his wife Maureen was in agony as she died.

At the High Court in Glasgow he has denied a charge of culpable homicide.

Mrs Crilley, who was 67, died from spinal meningitis after a sore on her back became infected.

She was found lying on her living room floor with a broken leg in September 2017.

It is alleged Mr Crilley failed to obtain "appropriate, timely and adequate" medical help for his wife, causing her "unnecessary suffering".

The accusations relate to events at their home in Whitecrook, West Dunbartonshire, from 1 July to 2 September, 2017.

'Heavy handed'

Mr Crilley said his wife of 39 years had a fear of hospitals and needles.

Giving evidence, he said: "She wouldn't go to the hospital for anything.

"When there was an appointment she would hide it and didn't say. I am totally ashamed."

Mr Crilley said he was unaware that his wife was lying in her own filth and had two sores festering on her back - one of them the size of a saucer.

"She was cleaning herself as she said I was too heavy handed," he told the jury.

"I totally failed her and I don't want to live - I don't deserve to live.

"I didn't know the pain she was in until I heard the doctor the other day."

He added that his wife "begged" him not to call an ambulance.

Double fracture

Richard Goddard QC, prosecuting, put it to Mr Crilley that it was "inevitable" his wife was going to die.

He replied: "I agree with that but I would have phoned an ambulance if I knew.

"I knew she fell but I didn't know if she had a broken leg or if it was fractured.

"I'm not educated or a medical person - I honestly didn't know."

A pathologist told jurors that Mrs Crilley had broken her left leg in two places.

Another doctor said she would have survived if medical treatment had been sought right away.

Mr Goddard asked Neil Crilley if he wanted his wife dead.

"No, God, no," he replied.

"Maureen was my life, I will never smile again and I wanted to look after her for the time we had left."

The trial continues before judge Lord Burns.