9:51am Thursday 10th May 2007
By Court reporter
A man who smothered his sick wife after she took an overdose in a suicide bid has been convicted of murdering her.
Retired accountant Frank Lund was found guilty by a Liverpool Crown Court jury following three hours deliberations.
During his three day trial the court heard how his 65-year-old wife, Patricia Lund, a retired teacher, suffered from manic depression and a bowel complaint.
On September 1 last year she took 80 paracetamol tablets which he had bought for her earlier as it was her wish to die that day.
He put a plastic bag over her head but she pulled it off. Later her condition deteriorated and after she vomited he again put a plastic bag over her head and held a pillow over her face, said Gordon Cole, QC, prosecuting.
He then notified her two sons and after one drove from his home in Yorkshire, where the couple also used to live, to the Lund's home in Magazine Lane, New Brighton, Lund called the police.
He told both paramedics and police what he had done and a paramedic described him as being very calm and said he was "emotionless".
58-year-old Lund, who pleaded not guilty, told the jury that his wife, to whom he had been married for 33 years, suffered from depression. She had tried to kill herself on six occasions.
She had a bowel disease and although she had been told it could improve within two years she found it debilitating and she no longer enjoyed visiting art galleries, shopping and food.
He said she started about killing herself by taking an overdose and asked him to suffocate her with a plastic bag while she was unconscious. They argued because she did not want to accept her dying but later after watching a programme about suicide he changed his mind.
On September 1 she asked him to buy paracetamol and he did so along with a farewell bouquet of red roses and cards for her from himself, the dog and their cats.
After she took the tablets he put a plastic bag over her head but she took it off. Later he placed another plastic bag over her head and held a pillow across her face until she stopped moving, he said.
When the jury returned their unanimous verdict pony-tailed Lund looked upwards and a slight tremor crossed his face. Lund had been on bail during the trial but the judge, Mr Justice Silber remanded him in custody until May 24 to enable a pre-sentence report to be prepared.
Lund faces a mandatory life sentence but the judge will have to fix the length of time he will have to serve.
The judge thanked the families of the couple for "the quiet dignified way they behaved during the case".
They declined to comment after they left court.
© Copyright 2001-2010 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk