She burns, buries hubby's body
March 18, 2009
FOR years, Margaret Uttley, 54, put up with her drunk husband.
Then one day in 2000, the mother of four was in bed asleep when husband Stephen arrived home and woke her up armed with a gun.
In the darkened bedroom, Margaret Uttley grabbed the gun, pointed it at her husband and the gun fired, killing him.
Shocked at what she did, she burned his body and buried it in the garden of their Melbourne home, reported the Herald Sun.
For seven years, she told police that she did not know why he disappeared.
She even told friends and family that he had left for another state.
She was arrested after a police search uncovered human remains at the family's property in 2007.
Victorian Supreme Court Justice Robert Osborn said Uttley had acted in circumstances 'precipitated by him', reported the Age.
Justice Osborn said the killing was a 'tragic criminal mistake in a life which has otherwise much to commend it'.
But judge said she had also 'desecrated' her husband's body and then told 'protracted and inconsistent lies' about his death, including claims he had gone to the Northern Territory.
Good mum
But Justice Osborn said Uttley had ultimately confessed the killing to police and was a good mother to her four children.
She will serve a minimum of two years' jail before being eligible for parole.
Mr Uttley's sister, MrsPauline Carnovale, told the Herald Sun her brother's murder had hit the family badly.
'This is a despicable event which will now be in my mind for the rest of my life,' she said.
Source : http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,196115,00.html?