A NURSE who killed her abusive husband with an axe after discovering he had fathered a child with her niece sobbed as she was told she would be removed from the Nursing and Midwifery Council register.

Wadanahalugeder Chandrasekera, 60, was convicted of manslaughter on January 11 last year after killing her estranged husband, Sarath, at the marital home in Port Close, Bearsted, near Maidstone.

Chandrasekera walked free from court after the judge heard she suffered years of emotional abuse at the hands of her husband, and was later sentenced to a three-year community order.

Chandrasekera, known as Gina, appeared on Wednesday before the Nursing and Midwifery Council when she contested an allegation that her "fitness to practise is impaired by reason of the conviction".

Chandrasekera was separated from her husband of 30 years when she found out he had fathered a child with her niece.

She told police she 'snapped’ when she heard the news and killed Sarath, 57, with an axe at the home they had shared in Bearsted.

The nurse, who arrived in the UK in 1976, was originally charged with murder, but she admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and the plea was accepted.

Doctors agreed that Chandrasekera was suffering from an abnormality of mind that substantially impaired her responsibility for the killing.

She told the panel: "I did 40 years of nursing continuously. I am a born carer. If it is taken away from me I will have nothing left."