Husband who killed Alzheimer’s sufferer wife and then attempted suicide ‘couldn’t cope with her illness’
Angus Mayer, 86, was hit by a train just hours after killing wife Margaret, 85, in their bedroom
A DEVOTED husband killed his Alzheimer's sufferer wife before throwing himself in front of a train - saying: "I didn't want her to suffer any more", an inquest heard yesterday.
An inquest heard he could not cope with his wife's illness - and killed her with a bedside lamp.
Retired salesman Mr Mayer was found under a train at Cardiff Central train station in a suicide attempt. He died seven weeks later.
As he lay underneath the train he calmly told a police officer: "I've killed my wife. She has Alzheimer's. I didn't want her to suffer any more.
"I just want to die. Let me die. I'm going to be spending the rest of my life in prison.
"My wife suffers with dementia and incontinence. She told me if I ever put her in a home she'd kill herself.
"I told her it would be quick then I'd throw myself under a train." Mr Mayer - known as Gus - had travelled three miles to the train station to slide down the platform as a London Paddington to Swansea train pulled in.
He lay on the track where it crushed his leg. He told a train conductor he wanted the train to run over his head adding: "But I couldn't even do that right."
He later told paramedics: "My wife took a lot of killing. I just wanted to suffocate her. There was a lot of blood." Police rushed to the Mayer's house in Heath, Cardiff, and forced their way in to find Mrs Mayer dead in the couple's bed in July.
The inquest heard she had suffered from Alzheimer's for four years and was progressively getting worse.
Pathologist Dr Ryk James said Mrs Mayer suffered eight "blunt force" injuries to her head and face, while a bedside lamp with its base stained in blood was found nearby.
Dr James said: "There was at least five blows to the right side of the face, and at least three to the left side.