'Mercy killing' husband convicted of murder

'Mercy killing' husband convicted of murder

By David Sapsted
Last Updated: 7:00pm BST 09/05/2007

A devoted husband has been found guilty of murder for killing his wife after she repeatedly begged him to help end her life.

It is believed to be the first time that a 'mercy killing’ has ended in a murder conviction but euthanasia campaigners were loathe to condemn the verdict tonight because, unlike other cases, 65-year-old Patricia Lund had not been terminally ill.

On the day that retired accountant Frank Lund suffocated his wife of 33 years, she had already taken 80 paracetamol tablets but had started being sick and was fearful they would not kill her.

After writing farewell cards and giving his wife roses, Lund, 58, placed a plastic bag over her head and smothered her with a pillow, Liverpool Crown Court was told.

Nobody during the trial questioned that the pair were anything but a "passionate and devoted couple" or that Lund had acted out of anything but compassion for his wife, who had attempted suicide on five previous occasions and was severely depressed by the affects of irritable bowel syndrome.

Now, however, Lund faces an automatic life sentence after being convicted of murdering her at their home in New Brighton, Merseyside, last September.

Lund, who was supported by his late wife’s relatives, denied the charge at the start of the three-day trial but Gordon Cole QC, prosecuting, told the court: "Mrs Lund did not die by her own hand. Her death was caused by the deliberate act of the defendant suffocating her with a pillow. That act was carried out with sufficient force to ensure Mrs Lund died.

"It is, therefore, the prosecution case that the act of the defendant doing this was, in law, murder."

The jury took only three hours to reach a guilty verdict after being told by Mr Justice Silber that they must do so if they were satisfied that Lund deliberately killed her.

After the case, a pro-euthanasia campaigner, who did not wish to be named, said: "This is a very difficult case legally. Although Mr Lund’s family support him in what he did, it is not like other mercy killings because Mrs Lund was not terminally ill."

During the trial, Lund said that he had agreed to help his wife die after watching a TV programme in which celebrities discussed euthanasia last August.

He said that he had initially opposed his wife’s requests for help in ending her life and had tried to persuade her to at least postpone committing suicide.

Then, he said, he changed his mind after the TV programme.

"It was a documentary. It was done in a hypothetical way by three reasonably well known people, and they were talking about what they would do in terms of the mechanism of killing themselves, including suffocation with a plastic bag," he said.

"We had a very sad discussion in the evening. Patricia was very distressed and she said it should be her right to choose the day she died, because only she would know when she had had as much as she could take.

"I don’t know why I felt differently. Perhaps it was the accumulation, but it did strike a chord with me that it was her choice. I went to bed and when I woke up it was absolutely clear in my mind."

Lund said that he had made a "solemn vow" to his wife that she would die with dignity, in her own bed, on a day of her choosing. He said he also promised she would not wake up in hospital.

On the morning of September 1, Lund told the jury that his wife had said to him: "Today’s the day. I want to do it today."

He continued: "I knew exactly what she meant because there was no other topic of conversation by then."

Lund explained that he went out to buy nearly 100 paracetamol tablets for his wife, along with roses and two farewell cards, which he wrote from himself and their pets.

He said that Mrs Lund took the tablets without his help but she began vomiting and he was worried they would not kill her. He told the court that he had asked if she wanted to go to hospital but she refused.

Andrew Menary QC, defending, asked if Lund had considered taking her to hospital against her wishes. Lund replied: "That would have been equivalent to the greatest act of disloyalty and betrayal I could have rendered against her. I would have been better to just desert her than to do that."

He said that he had then placed a plastic bag over his wife’s head and smothered her with a pillow.

Afterwards, he washed her and changed her clothes and sheets before calling her two adult sons, Stephen Olive and Daniel Olive-Lund, whom he raised from a young age, to tell them what he had done.

Lund was remanded in custody pending sentencing on May 24.