Woman jailed for trying to kill husband with anti-freeze in Christmas Day drink Published duration 23 November 2015

image copyright Metropolitan Police image caption Douglas Patrick had not wanted to pursue a case against his wife Jacqueline

A woman who tried to murder her husband on Christmas Day by lacing his cherry Lambrini with anti-freeze has been jailed for 15 years.

Jacqueline Patrick, 55, served up the lethal cocktail to Douglas, 70, with his supper after a row at the family home in Gipsy Hill, south London.

Their daughter Katherine, 21, had encouraged her mother to spike the drink, Inner London Crown Court heard.

She was jailed for three years.

Katherine admitted inciting another to administer a noxious substance, while her mother pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder.

The court heard Patrick poured her husband about two-and-a-half glasses of the spiked drink on Christmas Day 2013.

image copyright Met Police image caption The court heard Katherine Patrick had encouraged her mother to poison her father

When he became ill the next morning she phoned the ambulance service and told them the alcohol had caused his previous kidney failure to "flare up again".

When ambulance staff arrived his wife of more than 25 years handed them a fake "do not resuscitate" note, the jury was told.

During his hospital stay a blood test confirmed Mr Patrick had suffered from anti-freeze poisoning.

His wife told them she thought he may have drunk a blue liquid by mistake, prompting the medics to act on their suspicions and contact the police.

Mr Patrick spent several days in an induced coma before having to learn to walk and talk again during a year of rehabilitation, having already survived an earlier attempt by his wife to kill him the previous October.

image copyright Metropolitan Police image caption Douglas Patrick told police he had felt far drunker than he should

During the police investigation Mrs Patrick told police she had searched for anti-freeze poisoning on the internet after a friend's dog had accidentally consumed some, but it was found the friend had never owned a dog.

Mobile phones belonging to both women also revealed texts including, "I got the stuff I will give him some later delete txt tell no one ok" and "he feels sick again I gave him more delete this" sent between them.

The fake note asking for Mr Patrick not to be resuscitated was also found to have a misspelling of "dignity", which Mrs Patrick replicated when asked to spell it by police.

'It broke me'

Sam Brown, prosecuting, said: "It was hoped that the lethal dose and effects could be disguised as an adverse reaction to medication during that period or as a consequence of an attempt to take his own life."

image copyright Met Police image caption A misspelling of dignity helped police convict Jacqueline Patrick

The court heard Mr Patrick had not wanted to pursue a case against his wife and daughter and did not want to see them put in prison.

In a statement he said: "I will never get over it. It broke me. I'm just a shell now. This was a person I was married to for over 25 years. A person I loved and love."

In mitigation, Julia Flanagan, for Katherine Patrick, said her client had been "physically chastised" by her father as a child and became "overly reliant" on her mother.

But Judge Nic Madge said Mrs Patrick's actions were "cold and calculated" while their daughter "did more" than simply not stop her mother.