A WWII veteran strangled his dementia-suffering wife to death with a dressing gown cord and laid her on a bed of lilies before confessing to cops, a court heard.

Jack Tindall, 96, admitted killing his wife Ernestine, 88, after she begged him to end her life when the couple thought they were going to be moved into separate care homes.

5 Jack Tindall, 96, strangled his wife to death with a dressing gown cord and laid her on a bed covered in lilies, a court heard Credit: Caters News Agency

The war veteran told police: “I've strangled her...the things you do for love.”

Tindall admitted a charge of manslaughter with diminished responsibility and was handed a 12 month suspended sentence - becoming one of Britain's oldest killers.

Nottingham Crown Court heard that Ernestine had been his "rock" and that she had told her husband: "Don't let me wake up in the morning if you love me like I love you."

5 He was seen covering his face outside court Credit: Caters News Agency

The couple's grandchildren had overheard their grandmother begging her husband to help her die on several occasions.

Tindall throttled his wife of 68 years to death with a dressing gown cord on August 13 at their home in Perlethorpe, north of Nottingham.

He told police he surrounded "her beautiful face" with lilies, and went outside, where his granddaughter realised something was wrong and called police.

"For years we've solemnly promised each other that if anything happens...if it gets too much, we know what to do and I've done it...promise has been fulfilled," he told cops.

"I've strangled her. All the pleading and pleading and pleading and I finally done it."

Mr Tindall served in North Africa and Italy during Wold War Two before being posted to Austria, where he met his wife.

The couple were married in 1947 and on their return to the UK, Mr Tindall worked as a miner.

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They had a son and five grandchildren, and the court heard testimony from them that the couple were totally devoted to each other.

They lived together at Queen's Court care home, where the manager described them as "the closest couple [she] had ever known."

In 2015, Ernestine suffered a stroke, which triggered the onset of dementia, and she was confined to a nursing home for several months.

The court heard that Mr Tindall visited his wife every day and sat by her bedside for hours.

Their son, James, then rented a new house with his family and arranged for his parents to move in with him, in order for them to be together.

But the couple said that they felt trapped and blamed their son.

5 The war veteran told police: “I've strangled her...the things you do for love” Credit: SWNS:South West News Service

James realised his parents were unhappy and arranged for staff from a care home to visit them - but the couple then became wrongly convinced that they would be separated.

In a statement to police, Mr Tindall said he and his wife had made "a solemn vow long ago that if either one of us went to the limit..then the other would help."

Professor Yorston, a neurophysicist who interviewed Tindall, said: "He said she pleaded with him one last time to end it for her, and on the last time she asked I couldn't refuse.

"He said he'd never seen her face like that before and that she was afraid of ending up like a cabbage, being in pain and unable to move.

"He said they'd never discussed it in detail, because when she mentioned it he always put her off, but that day she was tearful and told him what she wanted.

"When he put her to bed she said: "Don't let me wake up in the morning, if you love me like I love you, you will help me."

"He signed and said with tears in his eyes, 'The things you do for love'."

Judge Dickinson QC said Mr Tindall killed his wife in a "perceived act of mercy".

"This was a crime. Mr Tindall has taken the life of another person. Every life is uniquely precious," he said.

"This is not a case of assisted suicide. This is killing as a perceived act of mercy.

Jack Tindall lived with his wife in Tuxford Road in Boughton, pictured

"However, it is central to this case that Mrs Tindall repeatedly asked her husband to ensure she did not suffer, to kill her rather than let her endure pain and indignity.

"In a sense, Mr Tindall's actions were coolly and calmly rational - fulfilling his promise to his beloved wife.

"In fact, he was acting through the fog of his distress, his depression and his declining mental faculties, in particular his misapprehension that he and his beloved wife were about to be separated.

"Mr Tindall's actions were attributable to his own mental state and to his wife's request.

"It is not necessary for this court to add further to the tragedy of this case by the imposition of a sentence of immediate imprisonment."

5 The 96-year-old's wife was found dead in their home in August last year Credit: SWNS:South West News Service

Britain's oldest killer is Bernard Hedinbotham, 99, who stabbed his wide Ida, 87, back in April 2004.

The great grandfather could not face his partner going to a fifth care home in just three months and slashed Ida's throat in their bungalow in the Pressall, Lancashire.

Hedinbotham was handed a 12-month community order after admitting manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

He later died in a care home, aged 102, in February 2007.