Wife Died In 'Overcooked Joint' Row

A row over dinner has this week led to prison for a TV location manager who killed his wife during a heated argument.

She was felled with a single blow during the disagreement after a dinner party.

Jonathan Wicks, 48, of Stourton, Warwickshire, who had worked on the BBC's Holby City, had denied the manslaughter of his wife Sarah.

He had argued about an "overcooked" joint of beef, his trial was told.

Mrs Wicks, 49, died in May 2009 after suffering a ruptured artery in her neck at the couple's home.

Sentencing Wicks to 18 months gaol at Birmingham Crown Court, Judge Richard Griffith-Jones said the offence was so serious that only a custodial sentence could be justified.

Wicks, who had worked on several hit shows, was convicted of manslaughter by a jury at Warwick Crown Court following a four-day trial in May this year.

Wicks claimed to have acted in self-defence after she threw plates at him.

Passing sentence, Judge Griffith-Jones told Wicks: "You are a man of hitherto good character who has led a respectable and successful life.

"That success encompassed what I believe to be a loving and harmonious domestic life."

He added: "This is not a case of the sort of yobbish violence in public which is so often a feature of one-blow manslaughter cases."

(BMcC/GK)