Coroner offers 'deepest admiration' for family of Sheffield woman who ended life after killing husband

Marjorie Grayson, aged 85, was found dead at her home on Orgreave Lane, Handsworth, on September 3, 2020. It was the same house where, two years earlier, she killed her husband, Alan, over a “trivial disagreement” brought on by a lapse in impulse control.

When Mrs Grayson appeared in court over her husband’s death, it was stated that she was suffering from a form of dementia at the time.

Mrs Grayson’s own subsequent death came after a lengthy stay in psychiatric hospitals, where she suffered from low moods, a vulnerable state of mind and evident guilt at what happened.

But despite this, and with no firm diagnosis in place, Marjorie was discharged to community care in March 2020 – where the decision was made not to see her face-to-face, but instead to handle her over the phone for fear of giving her Covid-19.

It meant a huge responsibility was placed on her already grief-stricken family to care for the 85-year-old and they were expected to look for warning signs.

Tragically, it ended with Mrs Grayson taking her life at home.

At the end of a three-day inquest into her death, assistant coroner Abigail Combes told Mrs Grayson’s family: “Condolences don’t seem enough. I’m really sorry for what you’ve gone through.

“I cannot imagine what you’ve been through. It’s indescribable. It’s not like anything I’ve ever come across in coroner’s court before. You really do have my highest admiration and sympathies.”

The inquest heard Mrs Grayson was arrested in September 2018 after fatally stabbing husband Alan to death at their Orgreave home.

After a stay at St Andrew’s psychiatric hospital in Northampton, she was placed in the care of Grenoside Grange Hospital in Sheffield.

But during the inquest, her family raised questions about her care at Grenoside.

She did not receive a firm diagnosis outside of mild cognitive impairment, which would not have accounted for her loss of impulse control and the death of her husband, it was suggested.

A rare condition called variant of dementia was suggested, which could have caused the “inexplicable” change in her behaviour, but this was never definitively confirmed.

And, despite frequently expressing low moods, guilt and worries about how her family would have to support her, the hospital discharged her in March 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic was beginning.

It was then decided that, because of concerns of infecting an elderly lady with coronavirus, Mrs Grayson’s home treatment – while staying with relatives initially – would be through phone calls.

The coroner said she found “no evidence” of Grenoside assessing the risk of discharging her to the family while in a state of guilt, or of discharging her to her home address where she had killed her husband, or how the family was given “little or no support” in looking after her.

The coroner said: “These factors ought to have been factors which weighed heavily in favour of seeing Marjorie face to face.”

On September 3, when Mrs Grayson had moved back to her home address, she took her own life.

The coroner entered a verdict of suicide, and said she would write to the Ministry of Justice and Sheffield Health and Social Care Trust with her findings.