A woman accused of strangling her seriously ill partner appeared at the Old Bailey on Friday.

Joyce Evans, 68, was charged with the murder of 66-year-old Colin Ballinger at their home in Hornsey Rise on July 30.

Mr Ballinger was found unconscious at the address in Iberia House, New Orleans Walk at 11.15pm and died at the Whittington Hospital at around 6.45am the following morning. A post mortem showed the cause of death as compression to the neck.

One neighbour last week described Mr Ballinger, who is thought to have suffered from liver cancer, as “a nice person, no trouble, but very quiet.”