A woman who killed her husband after he was accused of abusing children has avoided jail.

Susanne Wilson smothered 70-year-old Henry with a cushion at their home in Ayr last September.

The former nurse had been carer for her housebound husband, a retired Butlins shop manager.

Wilson struggled to deal with allegations that he had abused children.

Deferring sentence for six months at the High Court in Dumbarton on Thursday, judge Lady Rae told Wilson: "It is impossible to envisage the mental torment you must have been going through at the time when you killed your husband.

"While recognising that in most cases such a crime would merit a significant custodial sentence, I am prepared, in the unusual and complex circumstances of this case to impose a non-custodial disposal," she said.

"There is no suggestion whatsoever that you are a risk to the public.

"I have come to the view that punishment is not appropriate and having reached that conclusion, I consider that a community payback order is not justified nor is it required."

Lady Rae ordered Wilson to continue undergoing psychiatric treatment.

Wilson became aware of the allegations about her husband in September 2015.

Prosecutor Bill McVicar said: "Mrs Wilson accepted the accusations were true but continued to live in the same house to provide constant care."

People who had helped share the burden of looking after Mr Wilson stopped visiting after the allegations emerged.

In September 2016 Mr Wilson asked his wife to contact one of the people who had accused him.

He spoke to them on the phone, causing his wife to become anxious and after the call she became "very angry", striking Mr Wilson with a plastic jug.

Mr Wilson then discussed ending his life with drugs and his wife left out medication, although she did not administer it to him.

When she returned, Wilson found her husband had taken some of the medication and was struggling to breathe.

Mr McVicar explained: "She reports her husband said 'help me' as his breathing worsened. She took that as a request that she should help him to die."

The prosecutor went on to describe how Wilson held a cushion over her husband's face until he died.

Wilson, who originally faced a murder accusation, admitted the lesser charge of culpable homicide.