Woman gouged out terminally ill partner's eyes in horrifying fatal attack
A woman fatally tried to gouge her terminally ill partner's eyes out and dragged him from his bed while beating him in a horrific killing.
Gillian Shaw, 62, claimed she wanted her long-term partner Steven Cox, 63, to "live just a little bit longer" but brutally attacked him at their home in Liverpool on New Year's Eve last year. Shaw had been Steven's partner and primary carer due to his chronic COPD and a host of other debilitating physical ailments - in late 2024 he was told that he only had around a year to live.
Steven's worsening health took a toll on Shaw and she suffered from several mental health conditions - she was sectioned in 2023 for three months. It comes after a man died when his own wife ran him over in a car park in a 'tragic accident'.
Shaw also began neglecting her personal hygiene, losing weight, becoming socially isolated and increasingly paranoid. At around 4pm on December 31 2024, Gordon Cole KC, prosecuting, detailed in court how Shaw placed one final 999 call, reporting that she had "hit her partner and tried to gouge his eyes out", according to the Liverpool Echo.
Shaw also told police "you should just put me away now" when she was arrested on suspicion of murder. It came after she had dreamt that her victim "was going to go back to his ex wife", having also developed the paranoid belief that he "loved cigarettes more than her".
She later told PCs who attended the scene that she had "struck him to the head because she said she thought he had hidden her bank card". Steven meanwhile told the officers how Shaw had "hit him two or three times to the face, kicked him once to the chest and attempted to gouge his eyes out".
While in hospital, Steven also said their 37-year relationship had been "good", he was also said to have expressed concern for her mental wellbeing. He recalled how the couple had begun arguing in the living room at around midday before she stood on his foot, struck him to the head and pulled him to the floor.
The attack was then said to have continued as he lay on the ground, where she "dug her nails into his face" and kicked him to the chest. Steven later died in hospital on New Year's Day after he was found to have sustained three fractured ribs, as well as "clear facial injuries", and was suffering from breathing difficulties.
Liverpool Crown Court heard, on Monday, that the couple had been together for 37 years and had a "good relationship until recently", when Shaw had "started to assault" Steven.
Anne Whyte KC, defending, told the court: "It is quite clear from the facts and the history given by her own children that this woman struggled to cope with the terminal diagnosis of her partner. Their lives, notwithstanding the use of cannabis and the fractured relationship with their children, who disapproved of their lifestyle, speak of a stability and a good relationship.
"Ms Shaw had, in fact, intended to take her own life when Mr Cox died, and continued to feel suicidal until relatively recently. She was the primary carer for Mr Cox. It is quite clear from the evidence of her children that she had become socially isolated and she was neglecting herself."
Shaw pleaded guilty to manslaughter during a previous hearing, with a charge of murder having been dropped by the prosecution - she was sentenced to five years behind bars.
Sentencing, Judge Denis Watson KC said: "You were the primary carer for Steven Cox and you had become socially isolated at the time, which led to elements of self neglect. Significantly, there is your mental health. You were suffering from a depressive episode with suicidal symptoms at the time of the offences.
"What is clear to me is, since you have been remanded in the custodial regime, the stability and support you have had has led to an improvement, not just in your mental health but also in your physical health."
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