Husband pleads guilty to Susan Baird manslaughter

A man has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his wife by way of diminished responsibility.

Gary Alexander Baird, 64, admitted killing his wife, 60-year-old Susan Baird at their home in Belfast in 2020.

She died as a result of catastrophic head injuries after being attacked by Baird with a hammer at their Windermere Road home in August of that year.

At Belfast Crown Court on Monday he pleaded not guilty to murder but a barrister for the prosecution accepted his manslaughter plea.

Baird was remanded back into custody ahead of being sentenced on 8 July.

Ahead of that sentencing psychiatric evidence will be considered.

Victim impact statements will also be read at the sentencing hearing.

The first trial collapsed earlier this year after jurors were dismissed due to a legal issue.

That trial had heard that Susan Baird died after suffering multiple injuries, including fractures to her skull, lacerations on her brain and forehead and bruising on various parts of her body.

Her injuries were so bad that she had to be identified from her dental records.

Following the death of his wife, Gary Baird had been detained in Belfast City Hospital's acute mental health unit for more than a year.

At 16:51 BST on 16 August 2020, Gary Baird called 999 and said: "I've just murdered my wife."

He told the operator he had hit her with a hammer and when asked if she was dead, Baird replied: "I think so".

Police attended the couple's home and, after entering via an unlocked front door, they observed a heavily bloodstained Baird sitting in the kitchen with a wound to his head.

They then discovered Mrs Baird who was lying slumped on a sofa in a small room off the kitchen. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Baird was arrested and when asked about his head wound, he told officers: "I did this to myself".

Admitting he attacked his wife with a hammer then turned the weapon on himself, Baird, who is a former BBC security guard, also said "the voices in my head told me to do it".

At the time of her death, Susan Baird worked as an administrator at Orangefield Presbyterian Church.