A man accused of living in a “Walter Mitty” world of lies and fantasies has been jailed for 42 months after he secretly poisoned his wife with laxatives.



David Smith, a former tool-maker from Shropshire who had claimed to be a former SAS hero and a defence contractor, made his wife Elizabeth so ill after administering the drug for three years that she feared she was dying.

At one stage, doctors treating her suspected she was in the early stages of motor neurone disease after her health dramatically deteriorated about six months after the couple met, leaving her exhausted, bedridden and fainting without warning.

Smith, 62, pleaded guilty to culpable and reckless conduct at Ayr sheriff court last month and was sentenced on Tuesday to 42 months in prison. Sheriff John Montgomery said Smith was guilty of a “prolonged and evil course of criminal conduct”.

Elizabeth Smith, a beauty therapist from Ayr, told the BBC her former husband, whom she had met by chance in a TK Maxx store, had appeared to be “just a normal, lovely guy” who acted with great kindness towards her.

Smith had told her he took part in the SAS raid on the Iranian embassy, and owned a factory that made top-secret components for the Ministry of Defence. His first wife, he had claimed, had been a ballet dancer who had died carrying their unborn child. None of that was true.

“He was a family man – a wonderful man who came across as so genuine and real,” Elizabeth Smith said. In reality, she added, “he’s a 100% Walter Mitty character. He has got caught up completely in his web of lies.

“I want people to be aware that there are people like this out there and they are very, very dangerous men. He has taken away five years of my life. It’s heartbreaking.”

She believes Smith had used the migraines, double vision and sickness she had already suffered from as a cover for his poisoning. “Looking back, my migraines gave him something to work on,” she told the BBC.

“On one occasion when I was down at his house I was so ill with sickness and diarrhoea. I was in a dreadful mess and he cleaned it all up. I thought ‘you’re a keeper’. What guy at the start of a relationship would do that?”

After their relationship blossomed, her illness worsened. “It got so rapid that that they thought I had the early stages of motor neurone disease,” she said. “I would be sitting working with my clients and all of a sudden I would feel really dizzy and I would think ‘oh no, god’ thinking it was my head.

“I would go to stand up – then I was out cold, blue-lighted to hospital. My son thought his mum was dying.”

She eventually found that money was missing from her account, leading to a confrontation with Smith. He then staged a break-in but was caught after police found evidence contradicting his story.

“I don’t think that man knows what love is. He even took me to Mexico for my 60th birthday but then I found out he had paid for it with my money,” she said.

“Why didn’t he just tell me he worked as a tool-maker in his ex-father-in law’s factory? You never believe that these things can happen to people like us.”