CARDIFF, Wales, July 2 (UPI) -- A woman who strangled her autistic son in a Welsh airport hotel was spared prison Friday and ordered to get psychiatric treatment.
Judge Wyn Williams found Yvonne Freaney, 50, guilty of manslaughter, The Independent reported. He acquitted her of murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Freaney used a belt to kill her 11-year-old son, Glen, in May 2010 at a hotel near Cardiff Airport. She tried to take her own life but was still alive when she was discovered.
Williams said the sentencing was the most difficult he has had to deal with as a judge.
"There can be no doubt that you absolutely devoted to your son," he said. "You had a personality disorder and suffered from a very severe abnormality of the mind. The series of events you went through would have been difficult for even a person of robust personality."
Freaney's lawyer said she was in an abusive marriage and had three other children to care for.
"It's funny. He was laughing when I was strangling him," she told emergency workers when she was found. "That is when I knew he was happy. I had to do it because now no one can point fingers at him."
