A DEPRESSED husband who admitted stabbing his wife to death today walked free from court.

Ronald James Thomas, 57, told his estranged wife, Eileen, that he loved her before stabbing her 11 times at her home in Redearth Street, Darwen.

He was put on probation for three years by Preston Crown Court today.

The court heard that Mr Thomas had been married for more than 30 years, but had been separated for a year when he killed her on February 11, 1998.

Prosecuting counsel, Henry O'Byrne, said that afterwards, he told police: "I meant to kill her. If she hadn't fought it would have been one blow."

Richard Henriques QC, defending, said Eileen, 52, had been treated as a psychiatric patient and had drink problems.

Although she could be a generous and thoughtful woman, she could also be cold and manipulative. She had hounded her husband, who suffered from depression, constantly since their separation.

Mr Justice George Newman said that if Thomas had not already served a year and two months on remand, the equivalent of a two-and-a-half year sentence, he would have gone to prison. He was put on probation and told he must attend a psychiatrist if his probation officer said it was necessary.

Mr Justice Newman said: "You have been for a long time a vulnerable figure, given to clinical depression, diagnosed as long ago as 1969.

"You have had to deal with problems created by your wife's drinking and unruly behaviour which would have tested a man of robust balance and resolve."

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