Husband in mercy killing found guilty of murder

Frank Lund, 58, admitted suffocating his wife Patricia, 65, with a plastic bag and a pillow after she failed to die from an overdose of painkillers.

But he denied murder on the grounds that Mrs Lund, his wife of 33 years, begged him to help her die after her life was made miserable by a debilitating bowel condition.

His claims were not contested during a three- day trial at Liverpool Crown Court, in which he was supported by his late wife's relatives.

But jurors were warned to put sympathy aside and judge the defendant on the facts.

They were told by Mr Justice Silber to find Lund guilty of murder if they were satisfied that he deliberately killed her. The jury took three hours yesterday to return a guilty verdict, at which Lund showed no emotion.

The offence carries an automatic life sentence. Even if the judge takes pity on him, Lund faces at least 12 years in jail.

During the trial, he explained that his wife, who had attempted suicide five times since the mid-1970s, was "complicated".

Although doctors had told the retired teacher her condition would improve, she found the illness humiliating and restrictive.

He said he initially refused her requests to help her to die but eventually succumbed in mid-August, shortly after they watched a TV programme about euthanasia together.

Lund said he made a "solemn vow" to his wife that she would die in her own bed, on a day of her choosing.

She asked to die soon afterwards but he asked her to wait two more weeks, and on the morning of September 1 last year she said: "Today's the day. I want to do it today."

Lund told the jury: "I knew exactly what she meant because there was no other topic of conversation by then."

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

He said that Mrs Lund took the tablets by herself but began vomiting and he was worried they would not kill her. He asked if she wanted to go to hospital but she refused.

Andrew Menary, QC, defending, asked if he considered taking her to hospital against her wishes.

Lund, who has a £350,000 home in New Brighton, Wirral, replied: 'That would have been equivalent to the greatest act of disloyalty and betrayal I could have rendered against her.'

Instead, he placed a plastic bag over his wife's head and smothered her with a pillow. He then washed the body and changed her clothes and sheets before calling her two adult sons to explain what he had done.

The sons, Stephen Olive and Daniel Olive-Lund, spoke warmly of Lund during the trial and said he was "devoted" to their mother.

He was remanded in custody for sentence on May 24.