This is the fake Do Not Resuscitate order that, after the wife typed “dignity” erroneously, revealed her plan to poison her elderly husband on Christmas Day.
On December 25, 2013, as they sat down to dinner, Jacqueline Patrick attempted to assassinate her husband Douglas by pouring antifreeze into his festive cherry Lambrini.
The 54-year-old woman from Gipsy Hill in south London was so determined to see that he was murdered that she gave rescuers a typed DNR note and told them her 72-year-old husband had written it.
Detectives discovered that the word “dignity” had been spelled wrongly, which shocked Mrs. Patrick. She wrote down “dignaty” when they asked her to spell the word as it appeared on the note when they were testing her.
After a supposedly tumultuous 26-year marriage, Mrs. Patrick was rumored to be looking for a “extreme way out.” She has now pled guilty to two counts of attempted murder.
She confessed encouraging another to give a poison, but her daughter Katherine, 21, with whom Mrs. Patrick planned the conspiracy, pleaded not guilty to four charges of attempted murder.
The court was informed at a hearing yesterday at Inner London Crown Court about how Mr. Patrick became unwell on December 25, 2013, in the family’s $400,000 cul-de-sac house in Gipsy Hill, south London.
Mr. Patrick, a former bus driver, was diagnosed with anti-freeze poisoning by doctors at Kings College Hospital London after being transported to the hospital and put into an induced coma.
When his wife received the news, Mrs. Patrick told the physicians that her husband might have accidentally ingested a blue substance.
He informed authorities he was not suicidal, had not attempted suicide, and had not purchased or drank any anti-freeze when he came to two weeks later.
The senior continued by saying that he had had two drinks on Christmas Day and had gone to bed feeling more inebriated than normal.
The Met Police reports that Mr. Patrick informed investigators he had experienced a similar collapse in October 2013 and attributed it to drinking “bootleg” lager with his wife.
Next day, Mrs. Patrick and her daughter were both taken into custody. In a formal police interview, Mrs. Patrick acknowledged looking up anti-freeze toxicity online, but she gave the excuse that her friend’s dog had unintentionally eaten some.
The acquaintance who said he had never even owned a dog was located by the police.
The mother and daughter also discussed three separate attempts to poison the victim over a two-month period in a series of text messages that the police also discovered.
Katherine Patrick was charged with inciting or urging another to administer a poison, while the other two women were initially accused of three charges of attempted murder.
Paul Morgan, the attorney for Mrs. Patrick, said before the court that his client was morally upright and had never before been afoul of the law.
But he claimed that after years of torture at the hands of her spouse, she had been looking for a “extreme way out.”
The prosecution has reviewed a statement from the claimant’s former spouse’s son, he said.
In his statement, he claimed that during the course of their 26-year marriage, Jacqueline Patrick had experienced domestic abuse that was considerable and serious.
She was not permitted to work or lead a fulfilling life outside the home.
She kept the issue of domestic violence inside the four walls of the house and internalized it. Instead of calling the police, she chose this drastic course of action.
She must have had a cause for acting so irrationally for someone her age to go to such lengths in these circumstances, Mr. Morgan continued.
The 21-year-old had also “been subject to the years of abuse from the claimant,” according to Katherine Patrick’s attorney Julia Flanagan, and was “very vulnerable.”
Both offenders face lengthy custodial sentences, the judge noted, adding, “Having said that, I shall grant release on the same conditions as before.”
The mother and daughter were released on bond and told not to get in touch with Mr. Patrick.
Before the November sentence hearing, psychological and psychiatric reports will be prepared.
Detective Inspector Tracey Miller, the investigating officer from Lambeth police, stated: “Patricia was calculating how to get rid of her husband for good, helped by her daughter, at a time when a family should be celebrating the holiday season.”
She allegedly poisoned his Christmas Day drink with anti-freeze because of family strife and disagreements between herself, her husband, the victim, and their daughters.
“Mr. Patrick came dangerously near to death, and as he was struggling for his life in the hospital bed, his wife made up story after falsehood to hide her tracks.” The note she submitted to the London Ambulance Service claiming to be from her husband and declaring that he did not want to be revived was perhaps the most upsetting of all.
“This was a methodical and well-planned scheme, and I’m glad Patrick has finally recognized her crimes in court today. Her daughter has also pleaded guilty to her role in assisting her mother in acting in such a heinous way.