JAILED FOR A FINAL ACT OF LOVE
MERCY KILLING HUSBAND SENTENCED
A DEVOTED husband who killed his wife in a “final act of love” has been jailed for three years and four months.
Ian Gordon smothered Patricia with a pillow. She had suspected lung cancer and he said he had a pact to “help her
‘Death pact’ dad given three years for smothering his gravely ill wife
out” because she was in agony and too terrified to go to hospital. A trial heard that Patricia and Gordon had been together for 46 years and she was his “entire world”. But passing sentence, Lord Arthurson told the widower: “There are powerful mitigatory factors in your favour. “However, given the nature of the charge to which you have been convicted of, a custodial sentence is inevitable.” Gordon, 67, killed motherof-two Patricia, 63, at their home in Troon, Ayrshire, in April last year. He told his daughter Gail Whyte: “I know I’m going to jail. I don’t know how long for, but I don’t have a single regret”. Gordon’s lawyer Gordon Jackson QC said: “He said it was a ‘final act of love.’ That is exactly what happened.” Gordon was originally charged with murder. But at a trial last month, the charge was withdrawn following moving evidence from Gail about his devotion to Patricia. Gordon’s guilty plea to the lesser charge of culpable homicide under diminished responsibility was accepted. Since then, family, friends and the local community in Troon have rallied round to plead for the pensioner to be spared jail. But at the High Court in Edinburgh, Lord Arthurson told him: “I have considered in detail and with care, the terms of the many supportive letters and character references tendered on your behalf. “I have studied with the same care, the criminal justice social work report which has been made available, the terms of which are also
significantly in your favour and in which the author has invited the court to impose a community-based disposal in your case.
“You are a first offender who has lived an exemplary life within your community in partnership with your lifelong companion, your wife, the deceased.
“You continue to have the very real, united and affectionate support of your entire immediate and extended family and friends, including the brother of the deceased.
“These are all factors which are highly in your favour.”
But the judge added: “It is in the public interest that I discharge my duties and the sentence of this court will be three years and four months.”
Gordon killed Patricia in their former council house by placing a pillow over her face.
A paramedic found him lying on the bed stroking his wife’s face.
Gordon told a police sergeant: “I put a pillow over her head to finish her off. We made a pact that I’d help her out. It took a minute.
“No matter what happens now, I loved my wife all the years I was with her. We had a pact she would not go into hospital again. She is now free.”
During Gordon’s trial at the High Court in Glasgow, Gail described her mum’s suffering and her dad’s selfless dedication to her.
The 46-year-old said her mum had long-standing illness and a history of suffering from anxiety and depression.
Gail told the jury that Patricia was “convinced” she had lung cancer but her deep-rooted fear of hospitals meant she refused to be diagnosed or treated.
The court heard Gordon gave up work as a painter and decorator in 2015 to look after his wife.
Prosecutor Iain McSporran QC said Patricia, who retired on medical grounds in 2006, suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as a result of smoking.
Gail, who said she loved her dad “beyond measure”, told the court she saw her mum hours before she died.
She added: “She was screaming and moaning. She was clearly in excruciating pain. She couldn’t get comfortable.
“I have never heard a noise like that before and certainly not from my mum. It was absolutely harrowing.”
Gail told the court she left the house after her mum had settled and stopped crying out.
She said that about 4.30am the next day, her dad phoned to say her mum “was away” and she went to their home in North Drive.
In a statement to police, Gail said Gordon told her he was “sorry” and “couldn’t see her in that pain”.
She added: “I don’t remember his exact words but something like, ‘I’m not going to tell you what I did.’”
Gail told the trial she was glad her dad had helped her mum.
She said she knew about a “pact” her parents had and said her mum knew her own mind.
Gail added: “(My father) had nothing whatsoever to gain by doing that and absolutely everything to lose. They were together nearly 50 years.
“My mum was my dad’s entire world.
“Everything he did was for my mum. She was his reason for getting up in the morning.”
The Crown accepted that in the lead up to Patricia’s death, Gordon was likely to have been suffering from a depressive illness which impaired his ability to determine and control his actions.
Yesterday, Jackson, who is Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, told the judge that a doctor who knew Gordon said the widower didn’t act with malice.
The lawyer also said Gordon’s family fully supported him.
Jackson argued that the exceptional circumstances surrounding the tragic case meant a non-custodial sentence could be imposed on Gordon.
The lawyer added: “This is a very, very close family.
“There should not be a custodial sentence in this case. That’s my position entirely.
“It is absolutely clear that this family are united in this matter.
“They can’t get the grieving process started because they are spending all of the time supporting their father.
“It would be a tragedy for them and for their father if he went to jail. It would be a tragedy upon tragedy.
“I have never came across a case quite like this one.”
But Lord Arthurson told Gordon: “You will well understand that in pleading guilty to this offence, you have accepted that your own conduct was the immediate and direct cause of her death.” The judge added that the sentence he imposed was discounted from a five-year term.
It would be a tragedy for the family and their father is he goes to jail. It’s tragedy upon tragedy LAWYER