Inquest hearing planned for Sheffield woman with dementia who killed husband

Marjorie Grayson, aged 85, ‘tragically’ stabbed her husband, Alan, in the home they shared in Orgreave Lane, Handsworth, in September 2018 and died there herself two years later.

Mrs Grayson, a retired office administrator, appeared at Sheffield Crown Court in June 2019 over the fatal stabbing, which occurred during a ‘trivial disagreement’.

The pensioner was suffering from a rare form of dementia when she stabbed her husband in his chest and back.

The court heard the couple had been ‘happily married’ and Mrs Grayson had been allowed to return to the semi-detached home she had shared with her husband of nearly 60 years after she was sentenced for killing him.

An inquest is to be held to establish the circumstances of her own death.

Mrs Grayson was diagnosed with a rare condition known as behavioural variant-frontotemporal dementia, which the court heard had affected her ability to inhibit her impulses on the day of the ‘inexplicable’ attack.

She was initially charged with murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

She was sentenced to a hospital order under the Mental Health Act, and was treated at a specialist facility until she was considered well enough to be discharged and cared for in the community.

Sentencing her, Mr Justice Matthew Nicklin described the case as ‘tragic’.

Mrs Grayson’s barrister, Julia Smart QC, told the court she had been an ‘exemplary’ mother and grandmother.

She described Mrs Grayson as ‘kind, caring and extremely selfless’.

A pre-inquest review is to be held next month.

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