My husband secretly poisoned me
Liz Smith, 62, thought David was her soulmate. But she couldn’t have been more wrong…
Iwasn’t looking I for love when I first met David Smith on a frosty January day five years ago. Happily single after my second marriage had ended three years earlier, another relationship couldn’t have been further from my mind.
“I was shopping in TK Maxx when David caught my eye and came over to ask if I knew a nice place for coffee. He invited me along and we got chatting. I liked him so I gave him my number when he asked for it.
“That night he called and we talked for hours. Two months on, in March, we’d started dating and he told me all about his past. David, now 63, said he’d been married twice, and his first wife had died in a car crash when she was 23. He had three children from his second marriage, which he told me had ended in divorce four years earlier. He also said that he’d been in the army and had been fast-tracked through the ranks to join the SAS. I told him all about my beauty salon business and my son Michael, now 39, and three grandchildren, who are now 19, 13, and 11.
FALLING ILL
“David lived in Telford, 300 miles from my home in Ayr, but we fell into a comfortable pattern of him visiting every other weekend. We quickly grew close, so I was thrilled when he gave me a diamond commitment ring a few months after we met.
“The only thing that marred my happiness was my health, which had suddenly deteriorated. Up until this point, I’d always been in peak form apart from the occasional migraine. Out of the blue I started to feel constantly nauseous, often had an upset tummy and kept getting the shakes. Sometimes, I’d have paralysis down one side of my body.
“David was always so supportive and caring. When he visited he’d cook for me and would often bring some homemade lasagnes and stews to keep me going.
“But my health got so bad that I was constantly having tests at the doctor’s. They couldn’t find anything specific, but I could tell that something was very wrong.
“My family became concerned as I was losing weight and in and out of hospital countless times suffering from dehydration, but the doctors were still baffled about the cause. More than once I passed out in the salon I owned from being so weak.
“It became a bit of a family joke that I must be allergic to David as I always seemed to be ill just after I’d seen him. My brother would say: ‘When is David coming to dose you up with weed killer?’ We all just laughed about it.
“Then, two years after we’d met, David proposed, and we married in January 2015. He planned to sell up in Telford and move to Ayr later that year. I felt so grateful that he was sticking by me, despite my illness.
BURGLARY
“But just a few months after the wedding, I grew suspicious of David. I looked through a bank statement and saw lots of withdrawals for £350 that I had no recollection of and always coincided with his visits. When I asked him about it, he claimed that I’d asked him to do it and must have forgotten. I didn’t think I had, but he made me believe my illness was making me forgetful.
“Then, a couple of days later in July 2015, during one of David’s visits, I was burgled and
£3k was taken from the safe in my home. David had stolen the money and broken into the safe to make it look like a burglary. My son, who knew about the money missing from my account, became suspicious of David and called the police. The police searched his car and found the money. He was arrested at my house while I was there and didn’t say anything. I didn’t say anything to him either, and that was the last time we saw each other until the court case.
“I collapsed in tears. I couldn’t believe he’d done that, and worse was still to come. I decided to call David’s ex-wife as I thought she should know what had happened. I was stunned when she revealed that David had been telling me a pack of lies – his first wife was still very much alive and he’d never even been in the military. She also said they’d only split up four weeks before I’d met him.
“I was so distraught that I needed counselling and I couldn’t eat or sleep – I was a wreck.
“A month later, though, I started feeling better healthwise and the terrifying thought dawned on me that David might have been poisoning me.
“I called David, who was on bail back at home in Telford, and confronted him with my suspicions. Shockingly, he admitted it, but said that it was ‘just laxatives’ in my food and begged me not to report him. He tried to tell me that he’d done it because he thought he didn’t feel he was good enough for me – which didn’t make any sense to me. I hung up the phone in disbelief but I’d recorded the call so I handed it over to the police and told them what had happened, and then they investigated.
“At a court hearing in February 2016, he was charged with endangerment of life, assault to injure and attempted murder, but this was later changed to culpably and recklessly administering laxatives. He was jailed for 42 months after pleading guilty.
MOVING ON
“I was incredibly upset at first – he’d left me feeling violated. I fell for every word he’d said but that’s because I’d never imagined meeting someone so evil. I had a successful business and I think he’d only been with me to take my money – plus he was making me ill so it would have been easier to get away with it. I believe he could’ve eventually killed me.
“I was on medication for migraines and the laxatives stopped that working. People might think ‘it’s just laxatives’ but he was giving me large quantities, which left me with malnutrition and dehydration – my body was suffering.
“I’m fine now – happy, healthy and single. And I plan to stay that way. I can’t imagine having another relationship.
“I want to let as many people as possible know what he did to me, so he can’t do it to anyone else. I don’t know if he’s done it before, but I do know what he’s capable of and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
❛he said he’d put laxatives in My food and begged Me not to report him❜