A WIFE was caught by a carer trying to strangle her motor neurone disease suffering husband, a court heard.

Dispensing technician Margaret Ormandy gave up her job to look after her partner after he developed the condition in 2011, Burnley Crown Court was told.

But his carers saw how, in early 2018, her attitude towards him became increasingly unpleasant.

Robert Gollinsky, prosecuting, said she was heard to tell her husband he should "go to Switzerland" to end his own life.

Then on May 26 the victim required assistance in getting onto a frame, which he used for exercise.

Mr Gollinsky said when he asked his wife for help she pushed him so he "flopped" over one side of the frame, before she pulled him back sharply.

Later he told police this happened around a dozen times before he was able to summon help from an Alexa assistant, to call his sister. She then alerted the police.

Another incident occurred when the wife was out walking their dogs when one became injured. She asked one of his carers for assistance - but she felt unable to leave her husband alone, so his wife eventually returned home with the injured dog.

Mr Gollinsky said she was "clearly very irate" and was later found upstairs, in her husband's bedroom, with his hands around his throat, saying she was going to kill him. One of his carers managed to intervene and the police were again called.

The court heard the defendant also followed her husband's car, being driven by the carer, down the M65, while he was taking one of their dogs to the vets. leaving him fearful.

Ormandy, formerly of Oak Close, Rishton, admitted to a harassment charge and was given a 16-week suspended prison sentence. She was also issued with a restraining order preventing her from contacting her husband for life.

Judith McCullough, defending, said her client had quit her job and had effectively been her husband's full-time carer.

"She accepts that in light of the impossible circumstances that both of these people found themselves in, that on occasions she said and did things in the heat of the moment," added Miss McCullough.

Passing sentence, Judge Sara Dodd said it was apparent the defendant had "reached the end of her tether" but must accept the fear she had caused to her "extremely vulnerable" husband.