[imagesource: ITV News]

Last year, gun dealer Peter Hartshorne-Jones shot his wife dead at home during the UK’s first national COVID-19 lockdown.

He had used a double-barreled shotgun to fire at his wife, Silke’s chest at close range while they were cooped in their home in Barham, a village in Suffolk, on May 3.

Mr Hartshorne-Jones was arrested in his driveway after making a chilling call to emergency services from his landline in the early hours of the morning.

On the call he had specifically asked for the “police, not the ambulance service”, according to the prosecutor Peter Gair, reported The Independent:

“During the course of that call he told the operator he had shot his wife, saying ‘10 minutes ago’,” the prosecutor said.

“He added ‘I think she’s dying, actually.’

“He went on to say he shot his wife twice in the chest, which is not far from the truth. He remained on the phone while armed officers were dispatched to his address.”

In an earlier hearing, Mr Hartshorne-Jones admitted to manslaughter by diminished responsibility, with the court being told that he was “suffering from an abnormality of mental functioning”.

Days before being murdered, Ms Hartshorne-Jones had apparently also told a neighbour that her 52-year-old husband “was not good at all and she was finding it difficult”.

It appears as though he had convinced himself that he was sick with the virus:

Peter Gair, the prosecutor, said the defendant made “extensive contact with various health professionals” between 16 March and 27 April.

Mr Hartshorne-Jones got in touch with providers – including the ambulance service, A&E departments and private GPs – 26 times during this period, Mr Gair told the court.

No cause for the 52-year-old’s symptoms was found, the prosecution counsel added.

Silke was a German national and a qualified lawyer:

Image: LinkedIn

She moved to London three years before the marriage in 2010:

“There’s no evidence that I’ve seen, from any source, of any problems with the marriage until March 2020 when of course the COVID-19 pandemic reached its peak in the UK in the sense that the first lockdown was then imposed,” prosecution counsel Mr Gair said.

“It’s then clear from the evidence that the defendant believed that he had been infected by the virus.”

It is still unclear why exactly he shot his wife, and whether his claim of being infected triggered the fatal incident.

Somehow, with a history of struggling with his mental health, he was still allowed to own and sell firearms:

Mr Gair told Ispwich Crown Court the defendant had answered “no” on a firearms certificate application in 2000 and 2015 in response to a question asking if he had ever received treatment for a mental health condition.

The prosecutor said it has since been found that “there are episodes recorded in his medical notes of depression prior to the signing by him, certainly for renewal in 2015”.

The sentencing hearing at Ipswich Crown Court is ongoing and is sure to bring to light the shady firearms licencing in the country, as well as how untreated mental health can culminate into dire consequences.

[source:independent]