France pities husband who beheaded his virgin wife

A postal worker is on trial in France for cutting off his wife’s head after a 20-year marriage that was never consummated. But the man, described as a loving and attentive husband, has received a remarkably sympathetic hearing in the French press.

Philippe Cousin had for years tried to persuade his domineering wife, Nicole, to have a child. She had always refused, aware that her father had killed himself after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis - and terrified that she might bear a child with the same condition.

Finally, one morning in April 2007, Philippe snapped. Paris Match (above) reports that after bringing his wife coffee in bed - a morning ritual he had followed for 20 years - he once again brought up the subject of sex. An argument erupted before Philippe returned to the kitchen and picked up a steak knife.

"I returned with the knife," he told police. "I hit her several times. She cried my name, I decapitated her. You realise! And I am not mad."

He phoned his wife's mother and sister "out of loyalty", according to his lawyer, before calling the police: "Sorry to disturb you: I've killed my wife," he said. When the officers arrived at his home, he apologised again: "Sorry for the work I’ve caused you."

Philippe's defence team says he is suffering from what they call a "pressure cooker syndrome". Quite apart from the 20 years of sexual frustration, and his unfulfilled desire to have a baby - he even says he had a name, Charlotte, in mind - a week before Philippe murdered Nicole, the couple spent a weekend in the Loire. There Nicole announced to her family that she wanted to leave her husband. All of this at the same time as Philippe turned 50.

The combination seems to have finally set off Philippe's repressed anger. Experts say the decapitation represented his unconscious wish to destroy her authority.

The trial continues today. Philippe faces life imprisonment if he is found guilty, but he seems to have already adjusted to life inside, where he is described as a model prisoner. ·