18 months for TV man who killed wife over burnt roast

A judge has handed down a jail sentence of just 18 months to a TV executive who killed his wife when she burnt their roast beef, citing his “respectable and successful life” as mitigation. Jonathan Wicks, who has worked as a location manager for shows such as Absolutely Fabulous and Casualty, will be released on license after half that time, minus the 110 days he has already served on remand.
 
Sarah Wicks, who was 49, died on April 25 last year immediately after a single slap or punch from her 6ft 2in husband ruptured an artery in her neck. The court was told she was a "petite" woman.
 
The attack happened after Sarah cooked a birthday lunch for her husband, inviting three other couples to their converted chapel home in Stourton, Warwickshire. During the meal, they and their guests drank six bottles of wine and champagne.
 
In May this year, Warwick Crown Court heard how Wicks complained during lunch that his wife had overcooked the roast beef. He also said he would take back the birthday present she had bought him, an ornamental log.
 
But it was after their guests left, as the couple washed up, that a row erupted. Wicks claims his wife started throwing dirty plates at him and said he feared she was going to "scratch my eyes out".
 
He retaliated with a single blow, which proved fatal. Panicking, he drove away from the house in his car, but was persuaded to return to the scene 20 minutes later by a friend he phoned.
 
Wicks called 999 and told the operator his wife had fallen. But later in the call he was heard to say, apparently to his wife: "Come on. No, no, you can't die, not over a fucking argument."
 
When the ambulance crew arrived they found Sarah Wicks lying on her back surrounded by broken plates. Crouching next to her, her husband said: ''What have I done? I've killed her. I hit her."

He added: "She was throwing plates at me and I hit her. Oh my God, what have I done? It should be me lying there. Just hit me with a blunt object."

Sentencing Wicks at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday, Judge Richard Griffith-Jones said his actions were “unattractive” but added: “You're a man of hitherto good character who has led a respectable and successful life.

“That success encompassed what I believe to be a loving and harmonious domestic life. That was brought to a tragic end during a tiff between you and your much-loved wife which in many other instances would have caused bruising but in this instance caused her death.”

He went on: “It's an important feature of this case that there's no suggestion of previous domestic violence. It's a further important feature of this case that the argument arose very quickly and in your own home.

“It's not a case of the sort of yobbish violence in public which is so often a feature of one-blow manslaughter cases.”

Wicks was found to be two-and-a-half times over the legal drink drive limit when he was arrested on suspicion of murder. He told police: “My wife is dead. I may have killed her. Do you really think I give a flying fuck? Your procedures are really fucking annoying me.”

There has been no comment from any family member on the sentence. ·