“I’ve harmed him pretty terribly, I fear I’ve killed him,” she cried as she raced over to a neighbor’s house, leaving him in terrible pain.
For allegedly sexually assaulting her children when they were small, a lady who had been married to her husband for 38 years splashed boiling water on him.
Before the attack, Corinna Smith’s daughter informed her that her husband, Michael Baines, 80, had preyed on her and Corinna’s son in the past.
The mother then proceeded to retrieve a bucket from her garden and boil two kettles of water before adding three bags of sugar to it in a fit of wrath. The “livid” and “fuming” 59-year-old lady then rushed to the room in which her husband was laying sleeping and flung the boiling sugar water on top of him.
Corinna bolted from the house and hurried over to a neighbor’s house while her husband writhed in anguish.
“I fear I’ve murdered him,” she informed a neighbor, who then contacted the cops and an ambulance, according to the Liverpool Echo.
Michael was moaning in agony as the cops arrived at the residence.
“I’ve been severely burnt. I’m charred from head to toe, “As he lay in bed with the flesh of his right hand and arm peeling away, the spouse murmured.
He told them, “She threw boiling water all over me.” “All I want to do is die.”
Michael stayed in the hospital for the following few weeks, with 36 percent of his body covered in burns, until passing away a month later in August 2020.
Corinna reported the incident to the police once it was discovered “I agree that I doused Michael in hot water laced with sugar. It’s all a bit of a haze at this point. Minutes turned into seconds. I had simply lost it and was very emotional; I was not acting in self-defense.”
In court, Detective Chief Inspector Paul Hughes of the Major Crime Directorate of the Cheshire Constabulary said: “Smith’s husband Michael was murdered in such a horrific and brutal manner. It’s heinous to pour boiling water on someone when they’re sleeping. Her intention to do major injury was demonstrated by her mixing three bags of sugar with the water.”
“Adding sugar to the water makes it viscous,” Hughes explained. “It thickens and sticks to the skin, making it easier to absorb. Michael was in excruciating pain, but instead of calling 911, she spent time going to a house nine doors away to tell a neighbor she didn’t know what she had done. After the incident, Michael was an elderly man who struggled for his life, but regrettably, he died.”
Prosecutors said they couldn’t tell if the claims against Michael are accurate, but that “Corinna Baines believed them to be true at the time she caused Michael’s death.”
Judge Amanda Yip, QC also told Corinna during the court hearings, “Understandably, you were unhappy. At the prospect of what had been done to your children, you were characterized as enraged and furious.”
In July 2021, Corinna was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 12 years.
Cheshire Police provided the photograph for the cover.