The Star (Sheffield)
October 4, 2006
HEADLINE: Woman left her ex dying
A SOUTH Yorkshire alcoholic attacked her ex-husband in a taxi, then went to the pub as he lay dying, a court heard.
Marie Lynch assaulted former husband Patrick Lynch, aged 61, after he refused to get out of the cab after a night out in Sheffield.
She punched Patrick on the head and face, then went for another drink, although the taxi driver pleaded with her to help her dying ex-husband, Sheffield Crown Court heard.
Andrew Kershaw, prosecuting, said the couple had been drinking heavily to celebrate Mrs Lynch's 55th birthday. They started drinking at home, then caught a taxi to the Alexandra on Blonk Street and drank pint after pint .
They caught another taxi to the Dog and Partridge in Trippet Lane. But they were so drunk staff refused to serve them. They went further down the road to the Grapes and carried on drinking.
Lynch phoned a taxi but the driver saw their condition and drove off. Patrick hailed a cab. The couple, who divorced in 1977 but were still in a relationship, told the driver to take them to her home in Wagon Road, Greasbrough, Rotherham. But they were arguing and swearing so much the driver ordered them to get out in Nursery Street.
Lynch did, but her former husband, an alcoholic, refused.She grabbed his collar and he said something. Mr Kershaw said: "Mrs Lynch said 'no one talks to Marie like that'. She then hit him with repeated blows in a windmill fashion as he raised his arms to defend himself."
Lynch left. The driver, who had called the police, asked her to stay, fearing Mr Lynch, of Holmes, Rotherham, was dying. Police arrested her in the Tap and Barrel in Castle Gate. She was so drunk officers could not interview her for 16 hours.
Lynch denies manslaughter. She had memory lapses caused by drugs to combat alcoholism. A post mortem revealed his death could have been caused by heart failure from regular heavy drinking; the amount he drank that day; or an adrenaline rush caused by the beating.
The trial continues.
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