By Katie Feehan For Mailonline and PA Media

Published: 11:06 EDT, 20 July 2022 | Updated: 12:01 EDT, 20 July 2022

A pensioner has told a jury that the 'saddest words he had ever heard' were when his cancer-stricken wife asked him to kill her.

Graham Mansfield, 73, was found lying in a pool of blood in his kitchen on the morning of March 24 last year, while the body of his wife, Dyanne, 71, was slumped in a chair at the bottom of their back garden.

Mansfield told a 999 call operator he had slit the throat of his wife of 40 years at about 9pm the previous night at their home in Canterbury Road, Hale, Greater Manchester, and then cut his own throat.

The retired baggage handler at Manchester Airport is on trial at Manchester Crown Court accused of her murder.

Giving evidence on Wednesday, he said the couple married in Las Vegas in September 1980.

He said: 'It was wonderful. The best thing that had happened to me. You don't want to speak for someone else, Dyanne is not here, but she felt that way.

Pensioner Graham Mansfield (pictured right) has told a jury that the 'saddest words he had ever heard' were when his cancer-stricken wife Dyanne (pictured left) asked him to kill her 

'We were very fortunate. We both liked doing the same things - cycling, gardening, walking, playing badminton.'

He said his wife, a retired import/export clerk, was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 1999 which led to the removal of a kidney in 2004.

Years of uninterrupted good health followed, he said, as they later enjoyed an active retirement together.

He said 2020 was the 'start of another fantastic year' with three holidays booked and a 40th wedding anniversary trip planned to the United States.

But ahead of the Covid-19 lockdown his wife developed a 'tickly cough'.

In September that year, a doctor told her a scan had showed she had lung cancer and it had spread to her lymph nodes.

Graham Mansfield told police their lives were 'turned upside down' by her cancer diagnosis

Mansfield said: 'That was basically when our nightmare began.'

A week later they were told the cancer had reached Stage 4.

He said: 'We knew there was no Stage 5. There were tears in our eyes. I was inconsolable.'

Mansfield said the couple were 'shell-shocked' when they were told in October that she had two years at most to live.

He told the court: 'Dyanne said to me 'Graham, this is the best I am ever going to be now. When things get bad for me, will you kill me?'

'It was the saddest words I had ever heard.I said 'Dyanne, I will. On one condition. That I go with you'.

The court was told two notes to loved ones were found at the house after Mrs Mansfield died. Pictured: Police investigators outside the Mansfield's home in Hale in March last year

'She said 'there is nothing wrong with you, there is no reason'. I said 'Dyanne, I can't live without you'.'

His barrister, Richard Orme, asked Mansfield: 'Were you intending to keep that promise?'

He replied: 'Yes, most definitely, because Dyanne was the most important, precious thing in the world and without her there was nothing.'

The defendant said his wife started chemotherapy for her lung cancer but was ill the next day and visible deterioration followed.

They later agreed to stop the treatment which left her with months to live.

He said his wife did not want to go into hospital and feared they would be kept apart because of Covid-19 regulations.

Mansfield told the jury: 'We wanted something that was certain and quick.

'I said, "The only thing I can think of is you sit in the chair - I have seen it in the films - and I'm behind you and I just do it". She said OK.'

Graham Mansfield (pictured arriving at Manchester Crown Court for an earlier hearing) told jurors he intended to take his own life after killing his wife at their home in Greater Manchester

He said his wife suggested the back garden of their semi-detached property was the best location.

'I said, "That's a good idea'. It's a place we love, it's secluded".'

Mansfield agreed with David Temkin QC, cross-examining, that the day after his wife was discovered he told a psychiatrist he no longer had suicidal thoughts.

He said: 'I didn't want to live but I didn't want to put family and friends through another crisis.'

Mr Temkin said: 'You have said Dyanne was your world and you lived life to the full together, but you did take her life in a particularly brutal way.'

Mansfield replied: 'We were in an impossible position. Every fibre of my body did not want to do that but we had no option. When you are looking to kill yourself it's not as easy as you think. It was a cruel situation.'

Mr Temkin asked: 'Do you agree that it was an extreme act of violence on a person you adored?'

Mansfield said: 'It was an act of love.

Police say Mrs Mansfield's body was found in the garden at their home in Hale, Greater Manchester. Pictured: Police and forensics officers outside the couple's house in March 2021

'When we planned a suicide pact we didn't think we were doing anything wrong. We didn't need anybody's permission to say we have had enough of this world and we want to leave it.'

The court had previously heard when medics and police rushed to the couple's home, he begged them to 'let me die'.

He added he had only called 999 the morning after killing his wife so his sister would not be the person who found their bodies. 

The court was told Mrs Mansfield had bled heavily from a 16cm 'gaping incised wound' and her windpipe had been severed.

Also discovered nearby were two bricks on top of a plastic wallet containing a note written by the defendant for the police.

'We have decided to take our own lives', it said, giving instructions on where to find his house keys and how to contact his sister, the court heard.

Another note written by the defendant, addressed to his family, was found in an envelope on the dining room table.

It read: 'We are sorry to burden you with this but there is no other way. When Dyanne was diagnosed with cancer, we made a pact. 

'I couldn't bear to live without Dyanne and as the months progressed and as things got worse, it only reinforced our decision that the time has arrived. We hope you all understand.

'Don't get too upset. We have had a wonderful and happy life together.'

He denies murder and a separate charge of manslaughter, maintaining 'his actions were lovingly undertaken through duress of circumstances or necessity for the purpose of avoiding any further severe pain and suffering'. 

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