A MAN has admitted killing his partner after she suffered a serious head injury during a drunken row at their Lake District home.
Katrina Fletcher, who was aged 64, had been found by paramedics inside the St Kentigern Close home in Keswick she shared with 62-year-old Patrick Gordon Webster at around 11-15pm on September 11 last year.
She was taken to Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary, where she died almost a fortnight later, on September 24.
Webster had denied a charge of manslaughter and was due to have gone on trial in front of a jury at the city’s crown court this week. But during a hearing this afternoon (MON) lasting less than five minutes, he changed his plea to guilty and admitted he had unlawfully killed Miss Fletcher.
Members of Miss Fletcher’s family were in court to hear the admission from Webster, who was bespectacled, sported close-cropped greying hair and wore a grey jumper and dark blue jeans in the dock.
Francis McEntee, prosecuting, told Judge Peter Davies: “The case is an argument between two people in drink. The Crown say it is domestic violence, but not with an intent to do particular harm.”
The court heard Miss Fletcher had suffered the injury having been pushed during the row with her partner.
Webster, latterly of Walker Road, Aberdeen, is due to be sentenced tomorrow and was remanded in custody in the meantime.
Adjourning the case, Judge Davies said to him: “You have pleaded guilty today, it doesn’t need me to say, to a very serious offence.
“I have to consider and reflect on what the appropriate sentence will be.”
In a tribute released after Miss Fletcher’s death, her family described being “heartbroken”, and stated: “Trina was a loving sister, sister-in-law, auntie and friend to many in her home town of Keswick. We know she will be sadly missed by friends, neighbours and ex-colleagues over the years.”
