{"id":24345,"date":"2026-04-28T19:23:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T19:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/24345\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T19:23:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T19:23:18","slug":"man-92-appears-in-court-charged-with-murdering-his-wife-by-suffocation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/24345\/","title":{"rendered":"Man, 92, appears in court charged with murdering his wife by suffocation"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 92-year-old Exeter man has appeared at court charged with murdering his wife. Laurence Billam, of Millbrook Lane, is accused of killing 87-year-old Shirley Billam.<\/p>\n

She was found dead at a property in Millbrook Lane on April 19.<\/p>\n

The defendant appeared at Exeter<\/a> Magistrates\u2019 Court on Tuesday afternoon via a video link from a hospital bed.<\/p>\n

He spoke to confirm his name and age. The defendant, represented by solicitor Katrina Byrne, was not required to enter a plea and the case was sent to crown court.<\/p>\n

\"Shirley<\/p>\n

Shirley Billam, 87.(Image: Devon and Cornwall Police)<\/p>\n

The court heard some brief details of the alleged murder. The prosecution say the defendant killed his wife by suffocation at a property in Edwards Court.<\/p>\n

Magistrates adjourned the case to Wednesday, April 29, for a hearing at the crown court in Exeter.<\/p>\n

Devon and Cornwall Police have said officers called to a concern for the welfare of a woman at the address at around 12.40pm. Mrs Billam was pronounced dead at the scene.<\/p>\n

Police were seen carrying out investigations at Edwards Court, a 53-apartment extra care housing facility.<\/p>\n

Police said Mrs Billam\u2019s family continues to be supported by specialist officers.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Devon and Cornwall Police said: “A man has been charged with murder following the death of an 87-year-old woman in Exeter.<\/p>\n

“Officers were called to Millbrook Lane at around 12.40pm on Sunday 19 April following reports of a concern for welfare.<\/p>\n

“Emergency services attended where a woman was discovered deceased at the property.<\/p>\n

“The woman has since been named as Shirley Billam. Her family continue to be supported by specialist officers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 92-year-old Exeter man has appeared at court charged with murdering his wife. Laurence Billam, of Millbrook Lane,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[141,61,6209,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-24345","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-courts","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-exeter","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116483968647372410","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}