Husband bludgeoned wife to death with lump hammer after row over mashed potato

A husband killed his 'nagging' wife by clubbing her to death with a lump hammer after a row about mashed potato. Colin Adlard, 61 snapped and repeatedly struck his wife Wendy with the hammer while she was in bed because she would not stop shouting at him and berating him.

The 59-year-old had been dozing in bed at about 5.30am - the morning after the argument about mashed potato - when Adlard went berserk and delivered the fatal blows. He then called police and was arrested at the bungalow they had recently moved to in the quiet Northamptonshire village of Yardley Hastings.



Adlard later told officers he attacked her on January 7 because she would not stop nagging at him. The strained couple were thought to have been leading almost separate lives by the time of her death.

He appeared at Leicester Crown Court yesterday and admitted her murder after initially entering a not guilty plea to the murder charge in April, claiming a defence of diminished responsibility. Judge Charles Wide QC adjourned sentencing until later this month and remanded him in custody.