A GREAT-GRANDAD has admitted to a jury that he killed his dementia-suffering wife in a violent attack at their Bradford home.

Edward Small, 76, known as Hendy, told Bradford Crown Court on Tuesday that he struck Sheila Small with a rolling pin and a walking stick when he “got angry and lost it” during an argument.

Small denies murdering Mrs Small, 73, at their address in Raymond Drive, West Bowling, in the early hours of December 18.

He accepts that his unlawful violence resulted in her death but says that he did not intend to cause her really serious harm.

Small told the jury his wife of more than 50 years was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 2015, but he said he knew something was wrong before then. She had stopped doing the crossword and reading the papers and she was “drifting.” She became forgetful and would leave the gas turned on if she was cooking.

“The dementia took over. I had to have her with me, like my shadow. It put pressure on me, but it was something I had to live with,” Small told the jury.

Asked by his barrister, Tahir Khan QC, if he had considered suggesting to his wife that she went into a home, Small replied: “She said she was becoming a burden…put her in a home. I said ‘you are in a home, our home’.”

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On December 17, Small prepared tea and Mrs Small did the washing up. Then they argued over Christmas presents and where they were to spend the festive period.

“I just seemed to flip, lose it. I wasn’t fully controlled. I just got angry and lost it,” Small said.

“I just lashed out,” he told the jury.

They were in the kitchen and his wife stayed on her feet. He noticed just one small spot of blood.

The argument erupted again in the bedroom where Small hit his wife with his walking stick.

He said he did not kick or stamp on her or cause the injuries to her face. He heard a bang in the bathroom and she was on the floor.

Small said he picked her up and brought her back into the bedroom. He thought the facial injuries happened when she hit her forehead on the wash basin.

His wife was lying on the bedroom floor drifting in an out of consciousness. He could not feel pulse.

“I had her head in my lap. I could not believe what I was seeing,” he said.

He rang 999 and performed CPR until the emergency services arrived.

Small read a letter out in court that was directed at members of he and his wife’s family who were sitting in the public gallery.

“I Edward H Small with much regrets and remorse do apologise for causing the death of Sheila Small after 55 years of love and devotion, with happiness.

“I must have had a split focus while at the end of my tether and lost control,” he said.

He asked his relatives to forgive him for the pain he had caused.

The trial continues.