A WIFE whose husband tried to kill her by holding a pillow over her head as he suffered a mental health crisis told police she did not fear him.

Following the alarming incident at the couple's Wigton home, Sharon Corrigan said her husband - who consumed a bottle of whisky while on antidepressant medication - had not been the husband she knew.

She described Brian Corrigan as "her loving husband, her best friend, her soul mate, and her rock," Carlisle Crown Court heard.

Corrigan, 53, who also threatened his wife with a knife and told her: 'You're going to die today,' was originally charged with attempted murder but the prosecution accepted his not guilty plea to that charge. 

After accepting that there had been “exceptional circumstances” in the case, Judge Nicholas Barker spared the defendant from jail. Corrigan, of Plasketts Lane, Wigton, admitted suffocation and threatening a person with a knife.

Prosecutor Kim Whittlestone said the case was based on the contents of a 999 call made by the defendant’s wife at around 8am on June 20, as well as incriminating comments made by the defendant to the police.

In her 999 call, Mrs Corrigan asked for an ambulance, telling the call handler her husband was unconscious after drinking alcohol while on medication for depression.

When asked to check his breathing, she said she did not want to go anywhere near her husband at that point because he had tried to kill her earlier that morning. She said he had been "intoxicated and aggressive".

The barrister said: “She said that she was in bed when he came in with a pillow and put it over her head and shouted ‘You are going to die.’ He had pushed the pillow hard into her face, she told the officers.

When she finally got him off her, he said his head was ‘screwed’. He could see both of them dying that day, he told her.

Officers arrived at the property to find Corrigan lying on the living room floor, semi-conscious and incoherent. He was heard to say: “Tried to kill Sharon.”

“He sort of snapped,” she said, pointing out that she only shook him off because she squeezed a weak spot under his arm that she knew he had. She told the officers that in those minutes Corrigan had not been "her Brian."

She seemed 'nonchalant' and said she could look after herself. "She said she was not scared of the defendant," said Miss Whittlestone. 

Mark Shepherd, defending, said that Corrigan and his wife had been together for 23 years and she described him as “her loving husband, her best friend, her soulmate and her rock.”

The lawyer said: “She regrets calling the emergency services but Mr Corrigan has made it clear that she did absolutely the right thing. The purpose of her calling the emergency services was to help him, not herself.

“She feels he is genuinely remorseful.”

While he was at the police station after his arrest, Corrigan had said that he "wanted to be with his mother, who passed away in early 2020. "He feels as though he had not coped well with that," said the lawyer. 

The defendant, who appeared before the court with several glowing references from family and friends, had experienced suicidal thoughts and suffered  bereavements, including the loss of his mother.

The references spoke of him as being a helpful and friendly man, who was a good listener, a person with a lot of personal integrity. Of his wife, Mr Shepherd added: "She wishes for him to return home." 

There was no pattern of domestic violence and Corrigan was a man of previous good character, added the lawyer. 

Judge Barker noted a doctor’s assessment that at the time of his offending Corrigan was suffering a “severe depressive episode” and low mood to the extent that this overwhelmed him.

His offending came after the defendant, previously abstinent from alcohol for 13 years, drank a bottle of whisky. “This is undoubtedly a complex and difficult sentencing exercise,” he said.

The judge told Corrigan: “I can tell you that exceptionally, wholly exceptionally, I consider that this sentence can be suspended.”

The reasons included Corrigan's clear and genuine remorse, that he had served the equivalent of a ten month sentence already, and that his wife was determined they should continue their relationship.

It was now clear also that Corrigan was in far better state of mind, having come off the medication he was previously on.

The defendant was given 16 months jail, suspended for two  years, with a 120 day alcohol abstinence order, ten rehabilitation activity days and a mental health treatment programme. He was formally declared not guilty of attempted murder.