Tragedy mum battles for life (From Barry And District News)

Tragedy mum battles for life

A BARRY mum, whose husband tried to murder her a week after the tragic death of their son, was yesterday winning her battle for life.

Sarah Greening is unconscious in intensive care after her husband, Richard, smashed her twice over the head with a hammer.

The furious attack, which none of the family can start to understand, happened on Saturday - a week to the day after the couple's 15-year-old son Ben was run over by a train at Dinas Powys, as he walked home alongside the railway line.

After the attack on his wife, 52-year-old Richard Greening rang his eldest son Lee, from a previous marriage, to tell him what he had done, then went to Dinas Powys and killed himself by throwing himself under a train near the spot where his son had died.

Sarah, aged 32, was taken to the University Hospital of Wales, with dreadful head injuries, but hope is growing among her family that she will pull through.

Her father, Steve Mortimer-Brown, said: "She's still not out of the woods, but they have taken her off the breathing apparatus, and she's moving her right arm.

"Yesterday morning, we were in with Sarah, and the doctor told her 'if you can hear me, on the count of three, squeeze my hand' - and she did. She's still unconscious, but I think she's starting to respond."

Sarah's 15-year old daughter Abby added: "On Saturday, she felt cold, but she's getting better every day."

Ironically, Richard may have inadvertently saved Sarah's life with the second blow to her head.

"The doctors told us if she hadn't had the second blow to her head, which cracked her skull, she would have died.

But because her brain had room to swell, she survived," said Mr Mortimer-Brown.

She has undergone a six-hour operation to remove shards of bone from her brain.

Why Richard Greening should carry out the attack on his wife remains a mystery.

Sarah's mother, Janet, had visited Sarah on Saturday and left the Church Road house just before 5pm. She promised to call in to Sarah and Richard the following morning.

The couple's three daughters, Abby, Hayley, 13 and five-year-old Jessica had left for Barry Island just before their grandmother.

Although Sarah and Richard were going through a divorce, and lived separately, they had decided to renew their relationship four weeks before Ben died.

But shortly after 5pm, police think Richard approached Sarah, who was asleep on the settee, and delivered two hammer blows to the right side of her head.

He then left the house and called his oldest son Lee, from a previous marriage, to explain what he had done. He told Lee to call the police, and that he was catching a train to Dinas Powys.

Sarah's daughters knew nothing of the events, until Hayley, 13, who had taken Jessica to Barry Island, called the house, she said: "A policeman answered it, and asked where I was.

I wanted to know why he had answered the phone, but he just told me to stay where I was, so he could come and get me and Jessie."

Even in the midst of their grief, the family spared a thought for the train drivers.

Steve added: "We don't hold them in anyway responsible for this tragedy. We feel incredibly sorry for them."

Ben's sisters are now keen to dispel rumours about their family.

Abby said: "I have heard upsetting things, like I've slashed my wrists and that my mother is dead.

None of it is true."

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