Woman strangles paralysed husband after caring for him for 15 years
A 63-year-old woman who cared for her paralysed husband for 15 years strangled him to death before trying to take her own life, a Beijing court heard.
"I really couldn't take it anymore - I didn't want to be a burden on my children," said the tearful woman, whose surname is Cui.
"It happened in a moment of weakness - I really should not have done that."
Mr Zhou - Madam Cui's husband of nearly 40 years, during which they had a son and a daughter - had suffered a stroke in 1999.
Vegetative state
While Madam Cui left her job to care for him on a full-time basis, Mr Zhou's condition deteriorated to the point where she had to chew his food before feeding him mouth-to-mouth, according to their daughter.
Already struggling to provide for her family, fate delivered Madam Cui another cruel blow in 2013 when she was diagnosed with the same condition as Mr Zhou slipped into a vegetative state.
"I could not walk, needed to be taken care of and I didn't want to trouble my children," Madam Cui told the court.
"My old man had become a vegetable and wasn't moving... I just thought that if he died and if I died, our children could have a better life."
Things came to a head on the morning of March 6.
'I felt him leave'
After her daughter had left home for work, Madam Cui wrote a suicide note before taking a rope and tying each end to a plastic bucket.
She then went out to finish her breakfast before retrieving four bricks, which she divided among the two pails.
Madam Cui then wrapped the rope around Mr Zhou's neck.
She said: "After a while, I felt him leave, so I took a paper knife and slit my wrists."
When she failed to bleed out, Madam Cui tried strangling herself and slashing her neck before slitting her wrists again.
The sight of blood and the pain from her injuries then frightened Madam Cui to her senses, prompting her to contact her daughter on the phone for help.
Despite the fact that she had taken a life, Mr Zhou's family absolved her of any guilt as she had been through very trying circumstances.
According to CCTV News, the judge ruling over the case gave Madam Cui a three-year term as well as a three-year reprieve in light of her dedication to Mr Zhou as well as the family's poor background.
Sources: ifeng.com via CCTV News Facebook page, Shanghaiist, China Daily
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now