Bus driver's wife tried to cover up anti-freeze poison plot as suicide bid

Guilty: Jacqueline Patrick
Met Police
David Churchill|Paul Cheston11 September 2015
WEST END FINAL

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The London bus driver’s wife who poisoned him on Christmas Day with anti-freeze tried to cover up the murder bid as a suicide attempt, the Standard can reveal.

Jacqueline Patrick has admitted slipping the toxic substance into husband Douglas’ festive glass of cherry Lambrini.

For the first time it can be revealed how Mrs Patrick handed a fake note to medics fighting to save his life.

After planting the syrupy liquid on Christmas night before calling an ambulance more than nine hours later on Boxing Day morning, she handed the note to doctors informing he should not be resuscitated.

However, when the doctors at Kings College Hospital found he had been poisoned and noticed the note, an end-of-life decision document known as an ‘advance directive’, had not been hand-signed by Mr Patrick they became suspicious and called police.

When Mr Patrick, 72, awoke he confirmed doctors’ suspicions and said he was not suicidal or suffering with depression and had not written the advance directive.

Mrs Patrick, 54, pleaded guilty yesterday at Inner London Crown Court to two charges of attempted murder - one in December 2013 and on another occasion two months earlier.

Her daughter Katherine, 21, also admitted encouraging or assisting her mother with her plans over three months.

Forgery: Patrick's fake 'do not resuscitate' note, which aroused medics' suspicion because it was not signed (Picture: Met Police)
Met Police

Judge Nic Madge warned them both they faced “substantial custodial sentences” when he passes sentence on November 2.

The court heard that both women had allegedly suffered domestic abuse at the hands of Mr Patrick at the family home in Gipsy Hill.

Detective Inspector Tracey Miller, who brought the case to court, said: “Normally a murder is heat of the moment, but this was so coldly calculated over a long period, and bizarrely mum and daughter seemed to think they would get away with it.”

DI Miller also told how while recovering in hospital Mr Patrick told police milk given to him had been blue or red – the same colour as some anti-freeze varieties – leading officers to realise the potential scale of the attempted murder bid.

Ethylene glycol is the compound within anti-freeze which makes it toxic and is easily disguised in sweet or sugary drinks because it comes in different colours and is odourless, sweet-tasting and syrupy.

Katherine Patrick: The 21-year-old admitted one count of inciting another to administer a noxious substance (Picture: Met Police)
Met Police

When police searched the family’s cul-de-sac home after the Christmas attack officers discovered a number of bottles of anti-freeze.

Mr Patrick had already been taken to hospital once before the Christmas attack but the attempt on his life was not detected by medics who thought he had taken too much Ibuprofen for a toothache.

Police also unearthed dozens of text messages sent between the mother and daughter about the plot.

At one point Jacqueline Patrick once discussed giving her husband the toxic agent with his dinner, said she thought it was working and was facing prison.

Doctors initially said he would not come round following the Christmas Day attack, but has since made a full recovery.

Mr Patrick, who had one other daughter with his wife, is a former London bus driver and a Transport for London employee for nearly 50 years. He retired in 2010.

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