Millionaire who killed first wife with injection attacked his second wife with mallet
A MILLIONAIRE investigated for murder after confessing he “helped his wife die” in a letter to a newspaper was jailed for a mallet attack on his second spouse, it has been revealed.
Disgraced former army medic Douglas Laing, 71, is being probed by Devon and Cornwall Police after telling a national paper he gave his terminally ill wife Christine a fatal injection in 1998.
He admitted his long-held secret in October last year and said he would “take whatever was coming”.
But it has also been revealed that the retired property developer has recently been released from prison after being jailed for three years for a brutal attack on his second wife.
He hit his estranged spouse Susan around the head with a wooden mallet three times before calling police to their home near Exeter, Devon.
Exeter Crown Court heard he showed “no emotion” as he carried out the attack in 2017 after drinking Tia Maria and Polish brandy.
Susan escaped to a neighbour’s house and said in a victim statement: “I suffer from flashbacks and I see his expressionless face as he hit me.”
The defendant was initially arrested for attempted murder, which he denied, but admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
At the time of his arrest, Laing was a leading Tory councillor for economy, skills and tourism at Teignbridge District Council. He resigned and was later suspended from the Conservative Party.
Five years on from his conviction, police are looking into his actions from the past after he detailed how he injected his wife Christine with a lethal combination of drugs.
He said she told him she was “ready to die” after her terminal ovarian cancer became too much to bear.
In the letter to the Sunday Times last year, he wrote: “I have struggled with what I did and only recently spoken to close family about it. I wanted to make my actions public knowledge in support of the move to legalise assisted dying.
“Taking the brave decision she did allowed my wife to say goodbye to our two sons while she was able to, and allowed us a final cuddle. I know the consequences and it doesn’t bother me one jot.”
Devon and Cornwall Police said: “We have launched a homicide investigation in relation to the death of a woman in Devon in the 1990s. Enquiries remain ongoing.”