My husband died in our suicide pact... my only regret is I survived
EXCLUSIVE: PENSIONER CLEARED OF MURDER
A WIDOW who survived a double suicide pact today reveals her husband’s last words and tells how he died with a single tear rolling down his cheek.
Mavis Eccleston, 80, spells out in heartrending detail how she and cancer-stricken husband Dennis, 81, both took pills after he wailed in agony “like a wounded animal”.
After swallowing the cocktail, she tucked him up with a blanket and he said: “Goodnight, darling.”
He died later in hospital – but Mavis survived. And that, she tells the Sunday Mirror, is her only regret.
She says: “When I saw the nurses around me, when I realised I hadn’t died, I felt, well, very annoyed.
“I still regret I survived that day because I still want to be with Dennis but I’m content to live for the family who keep me going now.”
Her astonishing story comes after she was cleared at Stafford Crown Court of murder and manslaughter.
Mavis, from Cannock, spent 30 hours in a police cell after being taken from hospital in her slippers and dressing gown and accused of murder.
The grieving widow and her children Kevin, 60, Lynne, 59, and Joy, 54, endured 18 months of further torment before her trial and acquittal.
And Mavis adds: “The irony is we wouldn’t have faced this awful court case had I died that day.
TRUSTED
“I wouldn’t change an iota of what happened. I think they were trying to make a precedent of my case.
“I don’t regret any of it. You wouldn’t let an animal suffer the way Dennis was suffering. My life was worth next to nothing without him so I didn’t care about living either.
“If Dennis asked me to do it all again today I would. I wanted to be with my husband.”
Dennis had said he would rather take his own life than suffer a slow and painful death from bowel cancer.
And Mavis says she trusted him to tell her when the time was right. That moment came in February 2018 when she heard Dennis crying out “like a wounded animal” in the early hours.
They were sleeping in separate rooms for his comfort.
Mavis says: “I heard this noise I’d never heard before, like a wounded animal. It was 3am. I went in and Dennis was down beside his recliner.
“I made the decision then. I said ‘Dennis, I’m doing it’. He said, ‘Do you mean it Mavis, do you really mean it?’
“He then kissed my hand and I think it was a thank you. I said, ‘ Tell me what I’ve got to do’.”
Weeping, Mavis tells how Dennis told her to fetch prescribed painkillers from a dresser where she would also find sleeping tablets in a plastic cup that he had secretly stockpiled. She goes on: “I was crushing the tablets and Dennis was popping capsules. I said to him, ‘It’s typical of you to get the easy job!’ I went to the kitchen cupboard where I took out two mugs – a Pisces one for him and Capricorn for me – before adding water. We took them at the same time. I told Dennis I was scared but he said it would be okay and just to hold my nose while I took the mixture. Afterwards I covered Dennis up with a blanket because I thought he’d be cold.
“Then he said, ‘Goodnight, darling’ and I said ‘Goodnight, God bless’.”
Mavis returned to the living room to finish a 14-page “rambling” suicide note to their children. But unable to concentrate, she lay on the settee.
“The next thing I knew I woke up in a hospital ward,” she says.
The couple were discovered by daughter Lynne and granddaughter Aimee, who paid an impromptu visit that morning.
Aimee, 22, found the suicide note which ended “We do not want to be...”
Mavis later said the missing word was “resuscitated”.
Denni s and Mavis were taken to Stafford County Hospital, where nurses put their beds together so they could share his final moments.
Mavis tells how she then reminded him of their first kiss back in 1958.
She says: “We were meant to meet in Cannock town square but as the No 7 bus came up to the clock in the centre I couldn’t see him so I just stayed on the bus and went home.
SCOOPED
“Dennis somehow tracked me down to my house.”
Mavis says that the very moment she mentioned their kiss, Dennis shed a single tear and died.
Son Kevin scooped up the tear with a finger and used it to make a cross on the back of sister Joy’s hand.
But the poignant moment turned into an agonising ordeal just hours later. Mavis was on her bed in her dressing gown, nightdress and slippers after being discharged, when she was spoken to about Dennis. The court case hinged on what Mavis is supposed to have said to two mental health nurses who assessed her.
They claim Mavis admitted Dennis did not know what he was taking – which she denies.
Joy says: “Mum had just come round after a suicide attempt, she was in shock, confused, her husband had died hours earlier – how can it be right for her to be questioned in this state?”
The family claim they witnessed one psychiatric nurse rubbing their mother’s back while telling her: “Well you see, Mavis, we have got to wait for the police because you have murdered your husband and you are going to go to prison for a long, long time.”
Joy adds: “The situation became hostile and I said to the nurse, ‘I hope you can sleep at night’. And she said
‘Oh, I will – I’m only doing my job’. Mum was sitting there crying.”
Two police officers arrived and took Joy and Mavis to a quiet room where they explained she was being arrested.
Joy asked: “What for? Assisted suicide?” She says police replied: “No... murder.” Mavis was taken to Stafford Police station where she was held in custody in a “confused and shocked state”.
Kevin claims a senior officer later told him and Joy: “We are going to make a precedent of your mum’s case.”
Kevin says he told the officer: “So you’ve hung, drawn and quartered her?”
He claims the officer replied: “It’s the law of the land.”
A file went to the CPS and in April 2018, when told she would face trial, Mavis simply burst into tears.
The family’s ordeal had begun three years earlier when Dennis was diagnosed with cancer. He revealed the suicide plan and, despite desperate attempts by her children to persuade her against it, Mavis told them: “I love you all dearly, but I love your dad more.”
In early 2016, former pit boss Dennis asked Joy to research going to a suicide clinic in Switzerland. But, worried about prosecution, she refused and told Dennis she couldn’t get travel insurance for him.
Joy is not convinced Mavis appreciated the full gravity of what was going on until the night before the verdict – when she was asked to bring a bag and medication in case the jury found her guilty.
“Until that moment she was still talking about doing her food shopping,” says her tearful daughter.
Joy wears some of her dad’s ashes in a necklace while Kevin and wife Tracey, 54, keep some in a paperweight. The rest are in a casket in Mavis’s room – next to a picture of the couple. Each night she puts her hand to her lips and places her fingers on the photo. Sitting in the living room with her family, Mavis insists she no longer contemplates suicide.
She adds: “I live with a very contented family and I’m happy to live for them but I would still rather be with Dennis.”
Assisted suicide is illegal in the UK and the family are backing calls for a new law allowing patients given less than six months to live the right to die. Sarah Wootton, chief executive of campaign group Dignity in Dying, said: “An honest, caring family has been dragged through hell. Compassion is not a crime, but under the UK’s cruel, outdated ban on assisted dying, it is treated as if it is.”
Staffordshire Police said last night: “We are not aware of any concerns raised by Mavis Eccleston or her family about the way she was treated. If Mrs Eccleston or her family would like to discuss any concerns with us we encourage them to get in touch with us.”
The Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which oversees mental health services in the area, declined to comment on the family’s claims.
You wouldn’t let an animal suffer like Dennis did. I would do it again if he asked me...
MAVIS ECCLESTON REVEALING THE NIGHT OF SUICIDE PACT