Friday, February 27, 2026 - A woman has been jailed after sleeping beside her husband's corpse for three weeks.
Her partner, John Blackwell, 71, passed away around October
1, 2025, but his remains weren't found by police until 21 October.
Sally Smithson, 61, admitted to one count of preventing the
lawful and decent burial of a body.
Charles Ward-Jackson, prosecuting, informed Oxford
Crown Court that Mr Blackwell's body was in an advanced state of
decomposition.
The court was told Mr Blackwell had suffered from a severe
heart condition and that the suspected cause of death was a heart
attack. The barrister stated the relationship between Smithson and Mr Blackwell
had been "turbulent" and involved "drunken arguments and
domestic violence".
The court also heard that Smithson had a number of previous
convictions of violence against Mr Blackwell.
Mr Ward-Jackson said: "Police found his body on the
bedroom floor. He was flat on his back and n@ked. He was in an advanced stage
of decomposition. There were no signs of injuries. The TV was on and the bed
was slept in. The defendant had been sleeping in the bed for three weeks."
Mr Ward-Jackson said the last time Mr Blackwell had been
seen alive was on September 19. He told the court the couple's cleaner had been
cancelled numerous times around that period, which caused her to grow
suspicious.
Neighbours also saw erratic behaviour from Smithson, who was
reported to be seen peering through windows. Text messaqges were also sent from
Mr Blackwell's phone after his death as Smithson attempted to cover up the
truth.
She told people that Mr Blackwell had "gone out"
or was recovering from a visit to hospital when they asked where he was. It was
the couple's cleaner that called police on October 21, and when officers
arrived Smithson told them Mr Blackwell was upstairs and had died three weeks
earlier.
Peter Du Feu, mitigating, said: "On the weekend it
happened, there were two phone calls to the coroner's office. She said that was
her immediate instinct. But then, she put her head in the sand. She is
remorseful and has a deep understanding of what happened. She is facing up to
this and is very upset indeed."
Sentencing Smithson to 14 months, Judge Michael Gledhill KC
told her: "It's a tragedy to see you in the dock of this court.
"You led a perfectly honest and sensible life before
you first appeared in court in 2018. The relationship was volatile. The
deceased appears to have died from natural causes. You must have been sleeping
next to his dead body for about three weeks. This was a very grave and serious
offence. It was an affront to the standards of public decency."
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