A jury at Doncaster Crown Court is today deliberating in the trial of a Shipley man charged with aiding and abetting the suicide of his wife.

David Stephenson, 49, of Mires Beck Close, Windhill, is accused of helping his wife Linda, 48, kill herself when she jumped to her death from a 100ft disused railway viaduct in South Yorkshire in June last year.

During the trial, the jury has been told that in the days before her death Mrs Stephenson, whose mental health had deteriorated rapidly over a matter of months, had repeatedly asked her husband and eldest son Matthew, 21, to kill her.

Stephenson, who denies the charge, said he had been "stunned" when his wife had jumped from the viaduct across the River Don, near the village of Sprotbrough, after they had set off on a walk together at the beauty spot.