Man jailed for stabbing wife

A PEACEHAVEN father of two has been jailed for six years for stabbing his wife to death.

Robert Anscombe, 46, was convinced his 40-year-old wife Debbie was having an affair with a work colleague.

He stabbed her repeatedly with a 21cm kitchen knife as she lay in bed at the couple s bungalow in Cissbury Avenue on March 1 before stabbing himself.

The former Army instructor then lay across her body when their 11-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son came in to stop them seeing what he had done.

Anscombe, who suffered from a mental illness called Pathological Jealousy Syndrome, was jailed on Monday after admitting manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Prosecutor Diane Chan told Lewes Crown Court Anscombe had woke early on the day of the attack and told his wife they had to talk.

He went to the kitchen and returned with a kitchen knife up his dressing gown sleeve. He told his wife to leave her job or he would kill himself.

Miss Chan said: 'According to him she just grinned at him and said "Don t blame me for this".

He felt that she wanted him to do it so he would be out of her life. 'So he lunged forward and stabbed her because she did not care about him. He stabbed himself in the stomach because he wanted to die with his wife.

In sentencing, Judge Richard Brown said: 'No sentence this court can impose can ever reflect the value of a life that has been taken or restore a loved one to their family or a mother to her children.