Andrew Castle, U.K. Man, Builds Homemade Electric Chair In Attempt To Kill Wife

A British man has been sentenced to 10 years in jail after he rigged his wife up to a homemade electric chair after she asked him for a divorce.

As the Guardian is reporting, Andrew Castle of Knott End-on-Sea, Lancashire, began building an electric chair in his garage in an attempt to murder his wife Margaret when she handed him divorce papers after 18 years of marriage. On March 5, after inviting his wife into the garage, the 61-year-old Castle sat Margaret in the makeshift metal device and tried to knock her unconscious as he connected what is described as an exposed circuit of live and neutral wires to a power source.

"It was a distressing case," detective Martin Clague is quoted as saying. "He intended to kill his wife and had set plans in place to do this. It is rare for someone to attempt to kill their wife, or anyone, by these means."

Neighbors tell the Telegraph that the trouble began earlier this year. 'We couldn't believe it when we heard what happened...Margaret is a lovely person and everyone is very distressed that this happened," one said. "We always thought they were a lovely couple who enjoyed going on walking and cruising holidays together."

After the altercation, Margaret, who is also 61, was treated for minor head injuries at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary. Meanwhile, Andrew was found in the back garden with self-inflicted knife wounds to his wrists after grabbing a blade from the kitchen, police officials say.

After claiming he was ''simply unable to cope'' with the divorce and found it ''overwhelming," Castle plead guilty to attempted murder and received a sentence of 10 years earlier this week. A psychiatric report concluded he had obsessive compulsive disorder and an adjustment disorder, the Guardian reports.

Meanwhile, Margaret -- who has accused her husband of being "domineering and controlling" -- said: "It is by sheer good fortune that I am here today. I now wish to be left in peace and I am determined to move forward on my own terms."

Comments

[Craig Bovia]

11:12 AM on 08/08/2011

What can you say about someone as sick as Castle except keep him locked up

[Howard53545]

04:00 PM on 07/09/2011

Before sending him to the can, dial down the juice and sit him in his own creation for a few minutes.

[Alyson Irvin]

04:09 PM on 07/08/2011

Well if the UK follows its normal policy of banning anything that can conceivably be used to commit violence, chairs and electricity will soon be illegal too.

[llcultc]

02:50 PM on 07/08/2011

p

[a10flatliner]

01:42 PM on 07/08/2011

Utterly shocking! (gasp)... I guess he wasn't kidding at the alter and took his vows seriously.. "Till' death do us part", hmm?
If he was that good at electronics..he could have jus' moved on to India and become part of AOL's Tech Support Team.

[Ed C Atlanta]

12:40 PM on 07/08/2011

Seeing as we taxpayers pay for everything that congress uses, can we order a shipment of these and have them delivered to the house and senate,,at least we could some sort of bang for our bucks that they waste daily..

[gailmar]

12:38 PM on 07/08/2011

Sad story. I guess he's solution for the situation was to get rid of her before she got rid of him...All that planning and building he not only will still be divorced but will likely spend the rest of his days in prison.

[newworldman777]

02:20 PM on 07/08/2011

Yeah...in a prison where, ironically, just down the corridor from his cell will be a chair named "Sparky," which works just fine and dandy, thank you very much. Where was "Sparky" when Andy needed him?

[foreversummer14]

04:12 PM on 07/08/2011

where to do people come up with this stuff? An electric chair? You'd think he was executing her for being a secret assasin,but no, she only wanted a divorce......

[newworldman777]

12:30 PM on 07/08/2011

"After the altercation, Margaret, who is also 61, was treated for minor head injuries at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.'

He didn't wet the sponge. If we didn't learn anything else from watching "The Green Mile," we learned that you should always wet the sponge before flipping the switch...

[a10flatliner]

01:46 PM on 07/08/2011

And.. It's always a good idea to shave their head with a fresh razor.. We wouldn't want any infection to set in.

[Stephanie Serer]

12:27 PM on 07/08/2011

Wow talk about premeditation! I cannot understand his logic though. If she divorced him he would have been alone and if he killed her he would have been alone. Puts a new meaning behind till death do us part. The adjustment disorder is reasonable seeing as he couldn't adjust to the news of the divorce. I wonder how she got away.

[a10flatliner]

01:50 PM on 07/08/2011

The irony of this is that if he had been successful with the electrocution, he could have gotten first hand experience on how to build one correctly.

[CarlyQ]

10:23 AM on 08/08/2011

If he'd killed her, he'd have been alone but in control of her. Which is all he really wanted.

[darquelourd]

12:24 PM on 07/08/2011

Wow, that indomitable British spirit!

At least in the former wife that is ...

[TOPCAT711]

12:19 PM on 07/08/2011

Here dear.....I bought you this lovely antique chair.

Sit and relax....let's chat.

[a10flatliner]

01:57 PM on 07/08/2011

"Any last requests, Sweety"?
"Yes, Luv... May I have some tea, and crumpets before we say, bye bye"...

[Grandma Koolfinger]

12:15 PM on 07/08/2011

First he should have done a little research on electical do's and don'ts, like don't connect the neutral to the hot without a load. Then he should have spruced it up a little. "Honey, look what I got you. Sit here for a minute while I dim the lights for a little romance."

[newworldman777]

12:15 PM on 07/08/2011

How about just placing a "rack" or an "iron maiden"...heck, even just a set of "thumb screws"...in the garage, as a reminder to his disobedient spouse that she had better "straighten up and fly right," or else? Just the threat of torture should have been enough. :o)

On a lighter note (as if my previous comment were serious), I remember a cartoon in an old joke book that I used to have. A man, with a firm grasp on his wife's arm, was forcefully leading her down an extended stone staircase, down into their deep, dark cellar, which had been converted into a medieval torture chamber, where in the semi-darkness, one could make out a rack, an iron maiden, a gallows, etc. As she was being led downward into the chamber of horrors, she exclaimed emphatically, "Oh, Harold, why must you torture me so!?"

[mkelch]

12:04 PM on 07/08/2011

There's a joke here somewhere.

[dirtfreak]

12:37 PM on 07/08/2011

Here's one, courtesy of the great Henny Youngman:
[My wife] has an electric blender, electric toaster, electric bread maker. Then she said, "There are too many gadgets, and no place to sit down! So what did I do? Bought her an electric chair.

[jasper321]

11:43 AM on 07/08/2011

They should sell those at Walmart.