Wife killer gets life behind bars

JAILED... Cleary-Senior

CROSS-DRESSING killer Graham Cleary-Senior was jailed for life yesterday after stabbing his wife in the chest at their home in Alt following a booze-fuelled row.

He must serve 15 years before he can be considered for parole after being found guilty in half-an-hour by a jury at Manchester Crown Court.

Cleary-Senior, a former chief engineer with the Merchant Navy, was out drinking on March 17 when nurse Frances Cleary-Senior (49) returned from work.

When he arrived an argument over his drinking and their £27,000 debts causing Graham to grab a kitchen knife and threaten his wife. When she goaded him he stabbed her, handed her a towel, then slumped drunkenly in a chair. His wife had to call emergency services herself while her husband did nothing.

After emergency surgery she recovered in hospital, but died a month after the incident of complications arising from her stay.

Durig her period of recovery teetotal Frances told police the story of her troubled 18-year marriage, peppered with rows about his drinking.

DC Carol Buckley told the court: “Six weeks into their marriage she said she found out he was an alcoholic and a transvestite. She returned home early after her shift and he was in a dress, heels and stockings that weren’t hers.”

After she was stabbed, Frances told DC Buckley she had stayed with him “for love” but that she did not want a divorce because she thought her church would frown upon it. Only after she was stabbed did she tell a priest her problems — and he reassured her she could get a divorce, though she didn’t have the chance to act on the advice.

Judge David Stockdale QC said: “Her Catholicism prevented her from bringing her marriage to an end — she will be desperately missed by her family, friends and patients.

“This was a single, short-lived attack, triggered by loss of temper. I’m not satisfied there was any degree of provocation.

He told the defendant: “It’s right you’ve expressed regret and remorse — your present remorse is however tempered by your own self-pity as you spoke of the distress you now suffer when you wake every day. The prospect of waking every day is precisely what you denied your wife.”

A family statement, heard after the verdict was passed, said: “Frances’ family and friends are devastated.”