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.