Pensioner built electric chair in garage to murder his wife after she asked him for divorce

Andrew Castle pleaded guilty to attempted murder after trying to kill his wife of 18 years

He rigged a metal chair up to the mains then invited Margaret in 'for a chat'

Andrew Castle set up the home-made electric chair after his wife Margaret asked to end their 18-year marriage

A husband built a makeshift electric chair in his garage and tried to kill his wife after she asked for a divorce.



Andrew Castle, 61, ran a cable from a plug to a metal-framed armchair, then asked his wife Margaret in ‘for a chat’, a court heard.



Once she was sitting down, he tried to knock her out with a rubber cosh, planning to electrocute her with the live wires.



But she managed to wriggle free before 230 volts of mains electricity could pulse through her body, running out screaming.



Castle was arrested after trying to electrocute himself with his own device then attempting to slash his wrists, and yesterday was beginning a ten-year prison sentence after admitting attempted murder.



The macabre execution bid caused amazement among neighbours in the Lancashire town of Knott End-on-Sea, near Fleetwood.



Castle, a former shop worker, and his 61-year-old wife, who used to be a clerk, married 18 years ago in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, before retiring to their £110,000 bungalow on the coast.



Outdoor struggle: The couple fought outside their home in Knott End On Sea, Lancs, after Margaret had escaped from the garage

Neighbours believed the couple, who went on regular walking and cruising holidays together, were happy and content.

But Mrs Castle found her husband ‘domineering and controlling’, and she asked him for a divorce last autumn. From that time they were said to have lived separate lives under the same roof.

Castle moved the armchair into the garage before secretly rigging up the length of cable.

On March 5 he told his wife he wanted a chat about her desire for a divorce, and got her to sit down.

He told her he was going to kill her and grabbed a 12-inch rubber cosh, apparently chosen to insulate him from the deadly current.

But as he rained blows at her head she grabbed a stepladder, warding him off for long enough to escape through a side door as he continued to swing the cosh.

Castle then tried to electrocute himself with his own contraption before slashing his wrists with a kitchen knife.

Police called by a neighbour found him bleeding in the back garden crying: ‘What have I done, what have I done?’

Mrs Castle was treated in hospital for minor head injuries.

Officers who examined the garage found a length of cable running from a 13-amp plug to a lamp which was attached to a further cable with one end exposed.

When switched on at the plug, the live and neutral wires, if touched to Mrs Castle’s skin or to the chair, would have given her a potentially deadly shock.

Castle immediately admitted what he had planned to detectives, describing himself as ‘a nutter’. At Preston Crown Court he admitted attempted murder and was jailed for ten years.

The court heard he had planned to kill himself after murdering his wife.

Castle later claimed he had been ‘simply unable to cope’ with the divorce and found it ‘overwhelming’.

A psychiatric report concluded he had obsessive compulsive disorder and an adjustment disorder.

Judge Anthony Russell QC said: ‘This was undoubtedly a planned attempt to kill, followed by a sustained and brutal attack.

‘There can be no doubt it was a very frightening experience for your wife, but the physical injuries you inflicted were mercifully slight. However, the psychological effects must have been considerable.’

Neighbours were astonished by the attack. ‘Margaret is a lovely person and everyone is very distressed that this happened,’ one said yesterday.

‘We always thought they were a lovely couple.

‘Margaret was understandably in a terrible state after what happened to her and she moved out of the house.

‘It’s incredible to think this man could have gone to such lengths to get even because of a divorce.’

Last night Mrs Castle, who is staying with relatives, said the trauma of the attack would always be with her.

In a statement she said: ‘I finally decided that because of Andrew Castle’s domineering and controlling behaviour, which got worse over our 18 years of marriage, I would seek a divorce.