OAP survived suicide pact with wife... only to face murder charge
A RETIRED businessman was charged with murder after killing his wife of 61 years in a bungled suicide pact.
After being found alive in an armchair with a plastic bag over his head, Brendan Constant, 87, told police: ‘We just wanted to die with dignity.’
His wife Jean, 86, also had a bag over her head but was dead by the time emergency services reached her.
Mr Constant was charged with her murder but died seven months later following a fall at a relative’s home, days before he was due to go on trial. His family criticised the decision to prosecute him.
Mrs Constant had long-term health problems. Following a stroke weeks before her death, she had talked to a number of people about wanting to die, an inquest into her death heard this week.
Her husband, a former company director, told police he loved his wife very much and they had decided to end their lives together if going on became unbearable. He said: ‘She made it clear that she no longer wished to go on and I assisted her to die. When I was sure she had passed, I planned to take my own life but the equipment failed.
‘I just wanted to die. I didn’t want to live without Jean. We just wanted to die with dignity. She was a talented, creative and intelligent woman.’
Police were called to the couple’s flat in an assisted living complex in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, on August 22 last year after care staff found a note on the door which said: ‘Do not enter. Call the police.’
Officers found Mrs Constant, who once ran a second-hand pottery shop, in her wheelchair by a window. Attempts to resuscitate her failed.
Her husband was slumped in an armchair a few feet away.
The inquest in Huntingdon heard that Mrs Constant had been frail for some time. She had heart disease and memory problems, and suffered several falls. After the stroke on July 13 last year which left her with mobility problems on her left side, she told medical staff she wanted ‘to go’ and didn’t want to be ‘any trouble to anyone’.
One was asked for tablets to help her die. Another was told: ‘I wish I could go to sleep and not wake up.’
But she was given antidepressants and discharged into the care of her husband and other helpers on August 19. Mr Con- stant, who had spent up to two hours a day travelling to be with her in hospital, said the decision to kill themselves was made on the day of his wife’s death.
He had to kill her because they were not sure she would be able to manage on her own, he said.
‘My wife’s mood on returning from lunch that day was the lightest it had ever been.
‘Watching her suffer was heartbreaking for me. I never anticipated I would survive. I wanted to join my wife in death.’
They had first discussed suicide in 2010, he said. Their sons, Simon and John, were unaware of the pact, the inquest heard.
Simon said his parents were ‘private’ people and would have discussed their plans as they were ‘devoted to each other’.
‘It’s my belief it was a joint decision,’ he said. The family declined to comment yesterday. In a statement after Mr Constant’s death in April, they said: ‘We cannot understand why he was charged with murder – the evidence did not support that charge in our view.’
The inquest was adjourned until next month.
‘We just wanted to die with dignity’