‘Suicide pact’ OAP in death plunge
AN 87-year-old man accused of smothering his wife has died just days before he was due to answer a murder charge.
Brendan Constant suffered fatal injuries during a fall at a family gathering last week.
And yesterday his sons criticised prosecutors for accusing him of murdering their mother, Jane, 86, rather than a lesser charge.
They said Mr Constant had survived a suicide pact he and his wife had made while in a care home.
Their father was due to appear at Cambridge Crown Court yesterday to answer the charge of murdering Women’s Institute supporter Mrs Constant.
His barrister, Sally Hobson, told Judge David Farrell that Mr least amount of distress.” Mrs Constant died of “plastic bag” asphyxiation at the care home she was living in with her husband in Eynesbury, Cambs, last August.
Sons, Simon and John Constant, claimed the Crown Prosecution Service had been considering lowering the charge.
They said in a statement: “We cannot understand why our father was charged with murder. The evidence did not support that charge in our view.
“At the time of our father’s death, the CPS was considering a lesser charge of manslaughter, based upon our father being the survivor of a suicide pact. We cannot understand why it was deemed to be in the public interest to prosecute. Our father was 87 years old at the time he intended to die.”