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Hospital boffin who murdered wife, 50, gets life
A HOSPITAL scientist who drugged his wife before smothering her to death with a cushion was yesterday jailed for life.
Andrew Booth, 44, a former head of biomedical sciences at Doncaster Royal Infirmary, will serve at least 15 years for the murder.
Booth stole a bottle of the anaesthetic enflurane from work, soaked a cloth with it, and held it over his wife Lorraine's mouth until she passed out. He then suffocated her and attempted to cover up the crime, claiming he had left her unconscious and found her lifeless body several hours later.
Booth almost got away with the killing when a hospital post-mortem examination found no evidence of foul play.
But yesterday a jury found the father of two guilty of murder by a majority verdict of 11 to one, and judge Mr Justice Jack Beatson described the case as "a tragedy".
During the trial, Sheffield Crown Court heard that Booth tried to give the impression his wife was an alcoholic and was drinking herself to death.
The couple were married for 20 years, but at the time of the murder they were going through a divorce, which entailed Booth paying his wife 60,000.
Mrs Booth, a 50-year-old barmaid, had been telling family and friends that her husband had been trying to poison her by spiking her drinks with ethanol.
The court was told that a rucksack containing a bottle of ethanol and syringes was found at the couple's home in Hoyland Common, Barnsley, but Booth claimed it was antifreeze for the car.
There were also 15 containers of home-made wine fermenting around the house and the fridge was crammed with cans of strong lager.
Booth had even strewn vodka and pills at the side of the bed and claimed he had endured years of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of his "heavy-drinking" wife.
But the jury heard there was no evidence of alcoholism. Mrs Booth was an enthusiastic social drinker but did not drink to excess.
After his arrest, Booth gave three versions of events to police. Initially he claimed he had awoken and found her dead on the floor downstairs.
Then he changed his story to say he had smothered her with a cushion. The third version, on which he relied in court, was that he argued with his wife and picked up the anaesthetic-soaked cloth to muffle her.
Booth said he had no intention of killing her and had been provoked.
However, in crucial evidence given in court, it emerged that Mrs Booth's injuries were consistent with having been held face down on the cushion and suffocated by someone kneeling on her.
After his wife's death, Booth badgered the undertakers for the funeral to be speeded up and began behaving strangely.
It was only when Mrs Booth's family voiced their fears that a second post mortem was carried out by a forensic pathologist and it was revealed she had been smothered to death with traces of enflurane found in the body.
Det Sgt Paul Dickinson, who led the inquiry, said: "Lorraine's family and friends played an important role in alerting the police to their suspicions after her death. Without their telephoning the police this case might have taken a different route."
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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