Nurse stabbed to death by alcoholic transvestite husband

A nurse was stabbed to death after being repeatedly threatened with knives by her ‘alcoholic transvestite’ husband, a court heard.
Graham Cleary-Senior allegedly knifed Frances Cleary-Senior, a 49-year-old staff nurse at the Royal Oldham Hospital in Manchester, after she returned home from work to find him drunk.
Mrs Cleary-Senior survived the attack and underwent major surgery at Manchester Royal Infirmary.
But tragically, days before she was due to leave hospital she contracted pneumonia and died.
In a police statement, Mrs Cleary-Senior described the prelude to the stabbing.

“He came towards me me waving the knife about, saying he was going to stab me. I replied ‘go on, do it, I’m sick of you threatening me to do it...he then stabbed me with the knife in my chest.”

A 999 call played to the jury captures the aftermath. Mrs Cleary-Senior says ‘my husband’s stabbed me...please help’, before her breathing becomes laboured. As police arrive, a man’s voice can be heard in the background saying: “It’s my fault.”

Mrs Cleary-Senior’s sister, Pauline Ayres, said that after the stabbing her sister told her Mr Cleary-Senior had been ‘very controlling’, adding: "Frances was quite a vulnerable person - she believed that nobody cared about her".

Manchester Crown Court heard that in hospital visits after the stabbing Frances Cleary-Senior told a detective about her marital problems, said to revolve around financial difficulties and her husband’s drinking.

DC Carol Buckley told the court: “Six weeks into their marriage she said she found out Graham was an alcoholic and also that he was a transvestite. She turned up home early after her shift and he was dressed in ladies’ clothes that weren’t hers.”

DC Buckley said the victim told her Mr Cleary-Senior prevented her from seeing her family.
The former merchant seaman had been sacked by a shipping company after he was found ‘unconscious’ through drink.

The jury was also told arguments between the pair were ‘sometimes violent’, that Mrs Cleary-Senior ‘had a black eye once’, and that Mr Cleary-Senior ‘brought a knife out’ six times, on one occasion hitting her on the head with it.

“I asked why she stayed with him - she said she stayed with him for love”, DC Buckley added.

Frances Cleary-Senior tragically succumbed to pneumonia in hospital

Cleary-Senior, 56, of Alt Lane, Oldham, denies murder.

The trial continues.