Pharmacist killed own father after spiking his smoothie with morphine
He admits assisting suicide – but faces murder charge
A PHARMACIST murdered his elderly father by mixing a lethal dose of morphine in a fruit smoothie before injecting him with insulin, a court heard yesterday.
Bipin Desai watched Manchester United play a Champions League game on television at his £ 1.3 million detached home in the Surrey stockbroker belt before making the deadly drink for his father Dhirajlal, 85.
He later administered the jab before going to work the next day and acting as if nothing had happened. When he arrived home, he phoned 999 to say Mr Desai Snr had died in his sleep.
However, a court heard that when he learned a post-mortem examination would take place because his father had not seen a GP for six months, he went to a police station and said he had helped his father commit suicide. He denies murder.
On the first day of the trial yesterday, Mr Justice Green told the jury: ‘I should tell you that, in law, it is a criminal offence to assist another person to commit suicide. Mr Desai admits that he is guilty of this offence and he has pleaded guilty to the office of assisting suicide. However, he denies he is guilty of murder.’
Guildford Crown Court heard that Desai’s wife Dipti and two sons Samir and Nichil went to London on August 26, 2015, leaving him alone with his father at the family home in Dockenfield, near Farnham.
He calmly exchanged several text messages with Nichil about Manchester’s 4-0 victory over FC Brugge that night. Prosecu- tor William Boyce QC said: ‘The next day, the defendant went to work as usual. He knew when he went to work his father was dead. When he got in that night, the defendant called 999.
‘He said he had just come home and noticed his father’s curtains were closed. The breakfast he had placed on the table was not eaten and his father was not breathing. It was the start of a series of protracted lies.’
Police and paramedics arrived and established Mr Desai Snr had last seen a GP in March, shortly after he arrived back from a stay in India.
On August 29, Desai received a call informing him a post-mortem examination would be carried out. Shortly afterwards, Mr Boyce added, he walked into Guildford police station accompanied by his wife and children, and said he was ‘handing himself in for the assisted suicide of his father’. ‘He said
‘Reunited with his wife and dog’
to the police that his father had been suffering from depression and had wanted to die so he could be reunited with his wife and dog,’ Mr Boyce told the jury.
The defendant said Mr Desai Snr ‘asked him if he would help him’. Desai said he made a smoothie from fruit and orange juice and poured the morphine into it. He claimed his father drank it and went up to bed, saying: ‘Goodnight, son, thank you for everything.’
Mr Boyce said: ‘At about 10pm he went up to check on his father. At this point he injected him with the insulin. His father had a very slow pulse… about five minutes later there was no pulse.’
The post-mortem examination showed that Mr Desai Snr had 1,038mg of morphine per litre of blood in his system. Concentrations as low as 50mg can be toxic for people not used to the painkiller.
Desai admitted intentionally preparing a lethal dose of morphine capable of encouraging or assisting the suicide of his father.
The trial continues.