Lumsden: 'old-fashioned lawyer' who killed wife was suffering from 'abnormality of mind'

A Manchester solicitor who stabbed his wife to death while suffering from an 'abnormality of mind' was a 'well-respected and old-fashioned lawyer', his solicitor said this week.


Christopher Lumsden, a former banking partner at Pinsent Masons in Manchester, was cleared of murder, but was jailed for five years for manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility last week.


His solicitor, Mike Mackey, a partner at Burton Copeland in Manchester who also acted for Sally Clark, said he expected Lumsden to be released in about 18 months, as he has already spent a year in custody.


He said: 'It was obvious from the start that for someone with his background - a well-respected and old-fashioned lawyer, a considerate guy - to get into a situation where he stabbed his wife more than 30 times, something had to have happened.'


Lumsden had been diagnosed with a back problem that left him facing life in a wheelchair. He resigned from Pinsents, but Mr Mackey said the partnership was very supportive of him throughout.


'His wife divulged that she was having an affair with a family friend and intended to leave him. He did not want that to happen. He was becoming progressively more emotionally distressed, and went to see a divorce lawyer, David Pickering at Cobbetts. He gave him advice, and was so concerned that he recommended going to see a counsellor.


'Mr Lumsden was keeping up a punishing schedule and went to dinner with one of his partners, where he had one glass of wine. He went home, and his wife was out. She came back and he has no clear recollection of what happened next. There had been a burglary at the home a few years ago, and since then they had kept a knife in the bedroom.


'He called his sister, and she said he was in a catatonic state when she arrived. His wife had said words to the effect that "how can you expect me to go on with a cripple?".'


A spokeswoman for Pinsent Masons said the firm's thoughts were with the family.