Carer facing jail for killing her father because of his ‘intolerable’ MS

Claire Darbyshire, 36, killed 67-year-old Brian at their home in Wykeham Green, Dagenham, east London, on September 2 last year.

Afterwards, she claimed they had made a ‘suicide pact’ as his illness had become unbearable and she did not want to go on without him.

 But following a trial at the Old Bailey, a jury found Darbyshire guilty of murder – rejecting the lesser offences of manslaughter or assisting a suicide.

Widower Mr Darbyshire developed MS in 1995 and in 2014, the defendant took over as his sole carer.

Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC told jurors that Mr Darbyshire, a retired Ford stock controller, had not expressed any suicidal thoughts or complained about being in pain to nurses who visited him.

Medical records revealed he had episodes of ‘bad temper and aggression’, but had never tried to kill himself.

 Darbyshire complained to a friend about having to look after him and appeared to be getting more and more stressed.

After the killing, she caught a train to the Dover area, having texted the district nurse to visit ‘asap’.

On the evening of September 3, Darbyshire approached a National Trust worker on the cliffs for help and ended up with support services in Canterbury.

Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2016/03/10/carer-facing-jail-for-killing-her-father-because-of-his-intolerable-ms-5743867/#ixzz42Ud173WD

Source: http://metro.co.uk/ by Richard Hartley-Parkinson