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Wednesday, July 30, 2008, 10:00
Car hire manager Linda Lees twice put poison – an “odourless, tasteless” substance – into her husband Paul's takeaway meal after their 23-year marriage collapsed.
On one occasion, she duped a waiter at an Exeter restaurant by claiming to have a ring to put in her husband's food as a romantic gesture, but instead dissolved sedatives into the dish.
Lees yesterday pleaded guilty to three counts of administering a poisonous substance to her 43-year-old husband Paul, who is in the Royal Navy, with intent to injure or aggrieve him in what police said was “a crime of passion”. Lees, 45, from Helston in West Cornwall, concealed strong doses of a “colourless and odourless” sedative drug in food and drink given to her husband to put him in a stupefied state.
Truro Crown Court was told that the offences were committed in March, April and July. Sentencing was adjourned for reports.
Mr Lees, who was not present in court yesterday, is not thought to have suffered permanent ill-effects from the attempted poisoning.
Police say Mrs Lees suspected her husband of being unfaithful, and administered an unnamed toxin to try to coax him into admitting infidelity.
Speaking outside the court, Det Con Martin Skinner from Devon and Cornwall Police said the couple had a strained relationship as Mr Lees spent a long time away in Portsmouth with the armed forces where he is thought to work as an avionics lecturer.
He said that Mr Lees was seeing another woman and his wife wanted to find out details about the affair despite her having had a long-term on-off relationship with a near-neighbour herself.
Det Con Skinner said: “It really was a crime of passion. Six months ago, he decided the relationship was going to end, she agreed with him but hid the fact it was not what she wanted at all.”
The couple have a daughter, Hannah, 21, who was at court yesterday.
“The drastic action was taken by her to stupefy him to find out what relationship he was involved in now,” said Det Con Skinner. “He had no idea what was happening – there is a good chance he had been stupefied more than a few times.”
Truro magistrates were told on July 22 that on the first occasion in March, Lees invited her husband to Helston to discuss their marriage. They had a takeaway Chinese meal and a bottle of wine and he remembered the wine tasting salty.
The court was told that Mr Lees remembered waking up in bed with his wife standing over him wearing latex gloves.
Det Con Skinner said that the second poisoning took place during a meal at a restaurant in Exeter. Lees distracted a waiter saying she wanted to hide her wedding ring in the food as a surprise to help rekindle the marriage and took the opportunity to slip in the poison.
The police became involved after the third poisoning when Lees put drugs in her husband's takeaway Chinese meal at the Helston home during what was supposed to be the couple's final weekend together.
Det Con Skinner said: “They planned to have a weekend reminiscing together. She poisoned him again in a Chinese takeaway which she collected.”
Truro Magistrates Court previously heard that after the third incident, Lees told police that she had put the sedative temazepam in his tea.
Lees was released on bail to stay at her mother's house in Helston until sentencing. She is expected back in court on October 7.
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