Parkinson’s sufferer jailed after failed suicide pact

A PARKINSON’S disease sufferer who travelled the world with his wife before stabbing her to death but failing to kill himself in a suicide pact has been jailed.

Peter Rogers, 62, and wife Jennifer, then 56, who married in 1997, decided to sell their house in South Africa two years ago and travel the world until the money ran out.

On March 17 this year, after taking a handful of tablets each, Rogers stabbed his wife to death. But the pact failed because when he turned the knife on himself, he survived his injuries.

Truro Crown Court heard the couple were staying in a holiday let in Penzance, Cornwall, when they finally ran out of money after travelling around Europe, South America and the US.

Mrs Rogers signed the joint suicide letter as her husband had become too frail to hold a pen, the court heard.

Nigel Waller, the property owner, found what he presumed were two bodies when he went to check on the couple and then alerted police, who spotted Rogers’s fingers moving.

The prosecution accepted Rogers’s guilty plea to manslaughter and dropped a previous charge of murder. He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, serving a minimum of one year and three months.

Jo Martin QC, prosecuting, said: “During his interviews with police, he spoke freely and told officers that he and his wife had decided to commit suicide.

“At Camborne custody suite, Mr Rogers told police it was planned for a long time as they could never be apart.”

She added that Rogers said: “I’ve broken my word, she’s been so brave and I messed it up.”

He also commented that it “was harder than the website suggested”, a reference to internet searches that had been conducted on the couple’s ipad.

Defending Rogers, Ignatius Hughes QC said: “It was a suicide pact that went horribly wrong.”