British Lawyer who killed wife may inherit $4 million

A lawyer who killed his unfaithful wife has been freed after serving less than half of his jail sentence and could now inherit her 2 million pound fortune. Christopher Lumsden, 55, was released on licence after serving only two years of a five-year sentence for stabbing his wife Alison to death after she admitted having an affair.

He was acquitted of murder but convicted of manslaughter after claiming he was suffering from an abnormality of the mind at the time of the killing. Lumsden, who served his time in Sudbury Open Prison in Derbyshire, could now inherit the 1.4 million home in Bowdon, near Altrincham, Cheshire, where he carried out the attack. That would be in addition to the 1 million his 53-year-old wife left him in her will

Sheila Hannam-Andrews, of Support After Murder and Manslaughter, a group for the relatives of people who have been killed, said: "The sentence is ridiculous and now it looks like he will benefit from everything."

Lumsden, formerly a managing partner in the international law firm Pinsent Masons, stabbed the mother of his two children more than 30 times with a kitchen knife after she returned from a dinner date with her lover. He launched the "ferocious" attack in their Cheshire home five days after finding out that she wanted to leave him for the family friend. Afterwards he claimed to have virtually no recollection of the assault.

In addressing the court during his trial, Lumsden said he wanted to offer "a crumb of comfort" to his relatives and his wife's family. Watched by his children, Thomas, 20, and Kate, 17, in the public gallery, he went on: "If there was anything I could do to atone for this appalling tragedy, or even reduce by the smallest amount the anguish, pain and suffering I have caused, I would do it. If there was anything I could say that expressed the depth of my shame, sorrow and remorse, I would say it."

He served only two years of his sentence because the 11 months he had spent in jail before the trial was taken into account. The court heard that, before the killing, Lumsden had been diagnosed with a rare form of muscular dystrophy and doctors suggested that he might have only three years to live.

The couple moved into separate bedrooms and Lumsden began to shut himself off from their social life. Mrs Lumsden continued to socialise alone and embarked on an affair with a family friend, Roger Flint, in the month before the killing.

Lumsden will remain "on licence" until March 2010, which means he is liable to be recalled to prison if he commits any other offence. He is not free to return to work as a lawyer because he was struck off while he was in jail.

Usually a person convicted of manslaughter cannot inherit from the person they have killed. In this case, it is likely the money will be placed in trust for Lumsden's two children. Lumsden would have to apply to a court which has the power to make an exception and allow the inheritance depending on the circumstances of the case, for example if the killer suffered from a mental disorder at the time of the death. [Which is what this guy has claimed]

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