Wife who tried to kill husband with poisoned drink is caught out by error on death-bed note
A WOMAN who tried to murder her husband by spiking his Christmas Day drink with antifreeze was caught out when she misspelled a fraudulent ‘do not resuscitate’ note.
As he was being taken to hospital in the back of an ambulance, Jacqueline Patrick told paramedics he did not want to be revived.
She handed them a typewritten note in which she claimed 72-year- old Douglas Patrick had written that he wanted to ‘die with dignaty’.
But medical staff became suspicious when tests revealed what the retired bus driver had drunk in the hours before his death. Police then asked her to write the same words and she made the same mistake.
‘I’ve given him some more’
Patrick, 54, has been warned that she faces a long jail term after admitting two counts of attempted murder at Inner London Crown Court.
She was accused of also trying to kill her husband several times over the previous two months.
The couple’s daughter, Katherine, 21, admitted inciting her to administer the antifreeze after she and her mother were found to have exchanged sinister texts.
They claimed in court that Patrick was a long-term victim of domestic abuse who was desperate to escape the clutches of her husband of 26 years.
Their plans came to a head on Christmas Day 2013, when Patrick administered a potentially lethal dose of antifreeze.
She spiked her husband’s bottle of cherry Lambrini, a sweet pear-based drink which is similar in strength to strong lager.
Patrick later told police the family spent the day together but they argued and her husband had dinner alone before drinking the Lambrini and going to bed.
The next morning she found him collapsed at their home in south London, and dialled 999.
Perplexed hospital staff put him into an induced coma before tests revealed he had been poisoned.
When Mr Patrick regained consciousness on January 8, he told police he was not suicidal and would never drink antifreeze.
He has since gone on to make a full recovery.
Mr Patrick remembered having two drinks on Christmas Day and feeling very drunk before going to bed.
He said he also collapsed in October, something his wife blamed on ‘bootleg’ lager.
Jacqueline and Katherine Patrick were arrested the next day and police discovered a series of incriminating texts on their mobiles. In October 2013, Mrs Patrick wrote: ‘I got the stuff I will give him some later delete txt tell no one (sic).’
A few hours later she wrote: ‘I’m given him some more at dinner.’
But that initial alleged attempt at poisoning failed and a month later she wrote to her daughter: ‘He feels sick
Claims of ‘years of abuse’ by wife
again I gave him more delete this.’
Finally, before midnight on Christmas Day she sent her daughter the message: ‘Dads not feeling well.’
In court, the mother-of-two, who had never been in trouble with the police before, claimed she had suffered ‘years of abuse’ by her husband.
Her daughter also claimed she had suffered similarly and was said to be ‘extremely vulnerable’.
The women were released on bail and will be sentenced in November.