ZENA Burton, the Felixstowe woman who admitted the manslaughter of her partner John Westgate has escaped a jail sentence at Norwich Crown Court today.
By Nick Richards
By Nick Richards
nick.richards@eveningstar.co.uk
ZENA Burton, the Felixstowe woman who admitted the manslaughter of her partner John Westgate has escaped a jail sentence at Norwich Crown Court today.
The 45 year-old was given a three-year rehabilitation order during which time she will be helped to combat her alcohol problem.
Judge David Mellor said: "I sentence you as a vulnerable woman cruelly abused over a long period who snapped and lost her self control for a matter of moments.
"I see you as no danger to anyone save, perhaps in drink, in the context of another abusive relationship.
"The sentence I shall pass will be designed to help you to recognise and overcome your own problems with alcohol and those problems with relationships that seem to make you a magnet for men who have it within them to abuse and thus to reduce the risk of crime whether crime with you as perpetrator or with you as victim.
"I regard it as both more constructive and more just than simply locking you away in prison for a further period."
Burton, who lived at Undercliff Road East, Felixstowe, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of John Westgate on September 5 last year. The couple had been drinking and argued when Mr Westgate would not allow Burton to watch England's World Cup qualifier against Albania and she strangled him.
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