A respected nurse who axed her unfaithful husband to death while mentally unhinged today failed in her legal bid to salvage her career.

Wadanalahugedera Chandrasekera was struck off in December 2007 after the Nursing and Midwifery Council concluded her criminal record rendered her unfit to practise as a nurse - despite her acknowledged professional competence.

The 61-year-old had worked as a nurse for over 30 years before admitting her husband Sarath's manslaughter in August 2006 on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Chandrasekera, of Port Close, Bearsted, Maidstone, was in a state of extreme emotional distress when she killed her 57-year-old husband in October 2005 - having confronted him about a long-term affair he was conducting with her own niece.

Deputy Judge Christopher Symons - who rejected her challenge to the NMC's decision - said the bloodshed came after her husband came round to the family home and as he was about to leave.

"She picked up an axe and followed him outside," the judge told London's High Court.

"She shouted at him to tell her the truth but he ignored her and walked away. It was at that stage that she struck him two or three times with the axe".

The judge said she was in a condition of "extreme distress and desperation" when she killed her spouse, having suffered years of provocation, during which she was subject to "humiliation and psychological and physical abuse".

When she lashed out with the axe she was in the grip of an underlying psychiatric illness, said the judge.

Chandrasekera, who had served nine months on remand before her trial, was given a three-year community sentence.

The NMC's Conduct and Competence Committee considered her case in 2007, noting her unblemished professional record and the fact that she had been a nurse "all her adult life".

Chandrasekera had also returned to work "satisfactorily" while awaiting disciplinary proceedings.

But the NMC resolved to strike her off the nursing register after holding that the nurse's "fitness to practise" was impaired by her manslaughter conviction.

The question of fitness to practise should not only be judged "by reference to clinical ability or risk to patients", the NMC concluded.

John De Bono - Chandrasekera's barrister - challenged the striking off decision with claims that it was excessive in light of her exemplary professional record and her mental state when she killed her husband.

Judge Symons, however, reluctantly rejected the ex-nurse's challenge, although acknowledging it was a "sad and difficult case".

"I have considerable sympathy with the appellant who was clearly driven to commit a violent crime," he told the court.

But the NMC's committee had all those factors "well in mind", the judge observed, including her own interests and the drastic effect that erasure would have on her life.

Her appeal was dismissed.