Man who said he strangled/killed his wife during a nightmare has been found innocent

[ecstatic]

LONDON (Nov. 20) -- A British man who said he strangled his wife during a nightmare about fighting off an intruder has been found innocent in her death.

...

Thomas had accepted he had killed Christine, his childhood sweetheart and wife of 40 years, the jury was told at the beginning of his trial earlier this week.

The Thomases, who lived outside Swansea, about 185 miles west of London, were on holiday in their camper van in July 2008. After having their sleep disturbed by cars racing nearby, Brian Thomas had a nightmare that someone was breaking into the van.

The court was told that Brian Thomas suffered from a long-term sleep disorder and was in a state of automatism — where his mind had no control over his body — when he strangled Christine, with whom he had two daughters.

http://news.aol.com/article/brian-thomas-freed-after-strangling-wife/777228

:wtf:

[theoldman]

1. I hope my wife does not read this.

I may end up sleeping alone. LOL To be honest, I think it is a lot of BS and the guy knew what he was doing.

[vadawg]

3. you never know you might end up being the victim ;)

but not being privy to all the evidence but having seen people do wierd shit in their sleep and having done stuff myself i can believe it is possible...

[ecstatic]

4. True, but how often do people strangle intruders?

Doesn't pass the smell test!

[vadawg]

6. think about it, say you woke up and their was an intruder in your bed

would you fight them, probuably yes, and grabbing their throat to throttle them would be totally reasonable to defend yourself, as i said i have seen and done some wierd shit whilst asleep that makes me believe its totally possible, though i dont know if this was the case here.

[tnlefty]

8. Nope, not to me either. The worst thing that I've ever done...

My spouse was away from home attending a class a few years ago and he told me when he was supposed to be home, approx. 7 a.m., and when I'm alone with the kids I get a heightened sense of being protective. He'd been gone for almost a week and caught an earlier flight home from Madison, WI. He thought that he would surprise me and didn't tell me about the earlier flight. He was here around 3 a.m.

I kicked him in the chest and knocked him into the bay window in our bedroom, and was out of bed punching him before I totally woke up. All that I knew was that a man who wasn't supposed to be there, was standing over me. He told me as we were cleaning up the bleeding that he knew he'd made a mistake because when I first came around I had a wild look in my eyes. Duh, duh, and duh.

As soon as I realized who he was I felt terrible and all of this happened in a minute or less...beating him or strangling him to death, nope. He was glad that I hadn't reached for the ball bat beside the bed.

[johnnie]

2. Hmmmmm

:think:

[Bobbieo]

5. Several years ago when I lived in the DC area I had a neightbor who was a Lt. C

and VietNAm vet, still in the army who would not sleep in the same bed with his wife as he suffered from nightmares and found himnself attacking her a couple of times.

They finally divorced!!!

[Walk away]

7. My ex-Army Ranger 6'4" Dad never raised his hand to any of us.

He adored my Mom and never even said a cross word to her. He was a really gentle man but....every once in a while he would have a nightmare and would punch out so hard he would put a big hole in the bedroom wall behind the bed.

He never hurt any one but furniture suffered. That is why, despite a long and happy marriage, my Mom slept in the guest room.

[demosincebirth]

9. Some diabetics, also, do weird things, when asleep, if they develop low blood sugar

[ohheckyeah]

10. My husband hit me one night when he was having a bad

dream. He hits the headboard sometimes as well.