A PENSIONER killed his wife five days into the first UK lockdown after worrying about being unable to buy new shoes and the inability to hire someone to fix tiles on his roof if they came loose, a court has heard.

Anthony Williams, 70, from Cwmbran, also said he suffered sleepless nights fearing that he would run out of money because he wasn’t able to physically attend his bank to move cash from his savings account into his current account.

Swansea Crown Court heard the injuries suffered by Ruth Williams, 67, included haemorrhaging in her eyes, face and mouth which were consistent with strangulation, as well as five neck fractures.

Her cause of death was given as pressure to the neck, with a pathologist saying the lack of a ligature mark on her neck did not rule out a “soft” dressing gown cord found at their home in Brynglas being used in an assault.

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The court was read several police interview transcripts with Williams in which he said he had found lockdown “really, really hard” just five days into the UK-wide restrictions and felt “depressed”.

“Since lockdown I’m worried about my money, being able to transfer it over in the bank. I’ve got nothing set up. Money in, money out, I’ve always had to go into the bank,” he said.

“Well, with this happening now, not being able to do that because the teller is not there, in my head I keep thinking we’re going to run out of money all the time.”

Williams said the restrictions hadn’t caused any issues between him and his wife of 46 years, who would address his concerns by telling him “don’t worry about it”.

The court heard Mrs Williams had previously been diagnosed with depression and anxiety for which she was receiving medication but was “happy” since retiring from working at an Asda store four years earlier.

But Williams, who had not been diagnosed with depression or gone to see his GP about his frayed emotions, said he nevertheless felt he was coping “not very well” in the 18 months since his own retirement from Cwmbran’s Just Rollers factory.

Williams said he “didn’t have much of a pension” and became “a total worrier all the time” including about things he knew were “trivial”.

Asked what had been on his mind, Williams said: “Whether it’s only one or two pairs of shoes, and, you know, you’re laying in bed worrying if the tiles are going to fall off the roof because you can’t get nobody in to do it.”

He added: “I’ve got lots of clothes, but I wear the same things all the time. But with shoes, I always buy them when I need them.

“So at this moment in time, now, as one of my pair of shoes is going down the back and the other ones are starting to as well, I think that’s just freaking me out all the time.”

Asked if he was worried about not being able to buy another pair, Williams said: “Yeah.”

Asked whether he had a problem with the tiles on his roof, Williams said: “No. That’s just a ‘what if?'”

He said he also worried about paying utility bills but said that the couple had “enough money in the current account for a good few months”, had paid off the mortgage on their home and were debt-free.

Williams said he had never had a major argument with his wife who he said would “burst into tears” if he ever shouted at her.

He said the only time there was “friction” between them was if he was “lazy” for neglecting household chores which were mostly left to her.

In police interviews previously read to the jury, Williams agreed with detectives that he was responsible for the killing of his wife on the morning of March 28.

“We woke in the morning, I had been tossing and turning all night, two nights I could not sleep,” Williams told detectives.

“My wife said ‘get over it’ or ‘come on – get over it’. I just snapped. I started screaming and she tried calming me down.

“I had my hands around her throat, and I was actually choking the living daylights out of her. I had all these scratches over me and she is fighting me back.”

Williams said he chased his wife downstairs and again grabbed her by her throat as she tried to unlock her front door to escape, saying he found himself “throttling her to death”.

The court heard Mrs Williams was found slumped in the porch with a pair of keys in her hand. She was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Williams is accused of murder, which he denies, but has admitted manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.

The trial continues.