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Mother is charged with attempted murder of ME daughter
Anna Davis16 Apr 2009
THE mother of an ME sufferer who died after being bedridden for 17 years by the disease was today accused of trying to murder her.
Kathleen Gilderdale, 54, who nursed 31-year-old Lynn Gilderdale for 17 years, was arrested at her home last December. The case re-ignited the “right to die” debate over assisted suicides.
A spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service said Mrs Gilderdale was not charged with murder because it would not have been possible to prove her actions were the significant cause of her daughter's death.
Mrs Gilderdale, a trained nurse, cared for her daughter full-time at the family home in East Sussex. Richard Gilderdale, Lynn's father who separated from his wife in 2002, called police to the scene and Mrs Gilderdale was arrested less than two hours later.
Sussex Police said Mrs Gilderdale had been bailed to appear at Brighton Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.
Lynn Gilderdale, who suffered from ME from the age of 14, lived on a complicated diet of medicinal drugs and there were claims she tried to commit suicide on at least two occasions.
Police launched an investigation into her death and looked at the possibility she may have died from a morphine overdose.
Miss Gilderdale contracted ME, also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, after suffering a reaction to a tuberculosis vaccination in 1991.
She was diagnosed in 1992 and lost the ability to speak in August of that year.
By the time she died, the once keen horse-rider was unable to walk, talk, swallow food or hold her head up. In an interview published in July 2006, Mrs Gilderdale described how her daughter's life was left “in limbo”.
She said: “If someone dies, you mourn them, then you get to a stage where you know that person is gone and you move on. But Lynn is neither one nor the other. She is stuck in that room, not dead, but not alive properly.”
In the wake of her death, relatives praised Miss Gilderdale's “courage, which she showed to the end” in coping with her “life destroying” illness.
They said her death would “leave a massive void in their lives” and added “she unreservedly will be missed every minute of the day”.
The family statement after Lynn's death said: “Lynn was young, beautiful, loving and caring. She fought long and hard for 17 years with immense bravery, enduring constant pain and sickness.
“She required 24-hour care that was provided by her dedicated mother, with continuous support from Lynn's father.”
Derek Frame, a CPS lawyer, said: "I have today advised Sussex Police that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to charge Kathleen Gilderdale with the attempted murder of her daughter Lynette.
"In reviewing the evidence in this case, I also considered the offences of murder and assisted suicide. In order to support a charge of murder, the prosecution would have to prove that Mrs Gilderdale's actions significantly contributed to her daughter's death. There was insufficient evidence to prove this. In relation to assisted suicide, whilst this offence was considered, I decided that a charge of attempted murder more accurately reflected Mrs Gilderdale's actions and intentions."
