Abused killer gets four years
By Lana Yadgari
Manchester Evening News, UK
May 5 2005
A MOTHER of three who stabbed her violent husband to death and then
set fire to his body has been jailed four years.
Lana Yadgari, 32, lost control and killed her husband after he
forced her into the family car and drove to a secluded spot where he
threatened to kill her.
A judge at Manchester Crown Court accepted the Armenian-born mum
had been the victim of domestic abuse and posed “no danger to the
public”. But he said she must face a prison term.
The court heard that Yadgari had been diagnosed by psychiatrists as
suffering from the effects of domestic abuse.
Her counsel, Rock Tansey QC, said the couple married in 1990 and her
husband became violent the following year after the birth of their
first child.
They came to Britain in 2002 and began living in Northridge Road,
Blackley, Manchester. But he continued to abuse her and finally beat
her so badly she spent she spent nine days in hospital just weeks
before his death.
On the day of the killing, last October, her husband forced her into
his car and drove to a secluded spot. During the journey she spotted a
knife and a petrol container in the car and, believing she was going
to be murdered, fought back.
Wrestled
The court heard that although Yadgari could not remember everything
that happened, she admitted struggling with her husband and setting
him alight after he was doused in petrol.
Prosecutor Michael Shorrock said Yadgari’s husband tried to put out
the flames by rolling around on a grass verge, then he threatened her
with the knife. But she wrestled it off him and stabbed him 19 times.
The court heard that Yadgari got a taxi home and the body was found
after the fire brigade was alerted by a bus driver who saw the blazing
car. At first, Yadgari told police she had not seen her husband for
several weeks, but later admitted the killing.
Yadgari denied murder but admitted manslaughter on the ground of
diminished responsibility.
Mr Justice Cooke said that although he accepted Yadgari suffered
from domestic abuse when she killed her husband, the offence was so
serious she had go to jail.
He said: “You represent no danger to the public but the circumstances
show you killed your husband in a brutal fashion.”
Yadgari will now have to spend another 17 months in jail before she
can be paroled.
The sentence was condemned by women’s rights campaigners. Jill Page,
of Justice For Women, said: “Lana suffered violence over many years
and was defending herself. I don’t think she deserves to go to prison.”