Wife left to bleed to death

A MAN who left his wife to bleed to death while he watched football has been jailed for five years.

David John Reid left his de facto wife, Nola Ritter, 62, lying bleeding on their bedroom floor after hitting her over the head with a coffee cup during an argument.

She died of complications caused by her head injury.

Supreme Court judge Simon Whelan yesterday said that although Reid, now 51, had told police he offered his live-in partner help several times he never attempted to bandage the wound or stop the flow of blood.

"You have, by your criminal neglect, caused a death," Justice Whelan told him.

"You had a responsibility to care for Ms Ritter and yet you chose to abandon her in her moment of need."

In a police record of interview, Reid told detectives there was "blood everywhere" after he hit Ms Ritter with a coffee cup on the night of May 20, 2006, during an argument.

"I said, 'Do you want to go to the doctor's?' She goes, 'No I'll be right', and then I'm thinking 'Thank Christ for that because I'd be too pissed to drive'," he said.

Justice Whelan said yesterday: "The bed clothes were drenched in blood. There were literally pools of blood throughout the house.

"You left her and spent the whole day drinking beer and watching football at your brother's without ever checking back on her and without even mentioning to your brother or his partner what had happened."

Reid was found guilty of manslaughter and recklessly causing injury.

His lawyer had told the trial he was guilty of nothing more than poor judgment by leaving a bleeding Ms Ritter.Justice Whelan said Ms Ritter's death had a devastating effect on her family. "(Her daughter) Lindy Ritter describes her as a loving mother and grandmother," he said.

"She says, 'I am not as lighthearted as before. This sadness and despair for mum is always in the background'."

Reid, of Cranbourne, will serve at least three years.


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