Prosecution of mother was right, says DPP

Keir Starmer responds to outcry by saying case was in 'public interest' and there was 'realistic prospect of conviction'

(PA)

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has defended his decision to bring a murder charge against a loving mother who helped her seriously ill daughter take her own life.

Keir Starmer QC said he had acted in the "public interest" when he permitted the prosecution of Kay Gilderdale for the attempted murder of her 31-year-old daughter, Lynn, who suffered from ME.

Mr Starmer's comments follow criticism of the Crown Prosecution Service by the judge hearing the case, who questioned the wisdom of a murder trial after the jury at Lewes Crown Court unanimously cleared Mrs Gilderdale.

If she had been found guilty, she would have faced many years in prison.

But the DPP said he was satisfied there had been enough evidence against Mrs Gilderdale, 55, to provide a "realistic prospect of conviction" for attempted murder. He said putting the case before a jury was in the public interest because of the evidence and because of the seriousness of the allegation.

Mrs Gilderdale was cleared and given a conditional discharge for assisting suicide, which she admitted. The judge in the case, Mr Justice Bean, praised the jury for returning a not guilty verdict and questioned whether the prosecution had been worthwhile.

The case offered a stark contrast to that of Frances Inglis, sentenced last week to nine years' imprisonment for the murder of her 22-year-old disabled son. Critics of the law on assisted suicide called for reforms that would allow the creation of a new offence of mercy killing, which would not attract a life sentence.

Three years ago, the Law Commission carried out a review of homicide in England and Wales in which the Commissioners urged ministers to put an end to life sentences for those accused of mercy killings. But ministers rejected the move, on the grounds that it could open the door to legalised euthanasia.

Miss Gilderdale, 31, was struck down with ME at the age of 14 and went from living an active life as a teenager to being bedridden and needing 24-hour care. In her online diary, she described how her life had become unbearable and said she intended to end it.

In one of her final entries, she wrote: "Here goes, (deep breaths). Basically I think some of you have known for a while I have had enough of this miserable excuse for a life, of merely semi-existing for the last 16-and-a-half years.

"I have had enough and I want to die. This is no whim and certainly not just because of the reactive depression diagnosed a few months ago. I am no longer on anti-depressants because they weren't doing anything for me."

Mrs Gilderdale, from Stonegate in East Sussex, gave her daughter morphine so she could fulfil her wish to end her "unimaginably wretched" life, the court heard.

Initially her mother, a former nurse, resisted her daughter's request to die, but finally relented when she told her: "I want the pain to go – I don't want to go on."

When the not guilty verdict was handed down, the court's public gallery erupted with cheers and applause.

ME: The symptoms

* The debilitating condition known as ME or myalgic encephalomyelitis is thought to affect about 250,000 people in Britain, and perhaps 17 million worldwide.

* Its symptoms can vary from bouts of long-term tiredness and aching limbs to severe disabling fatigue that can leave sufferers bedridden and virtually paralysed for months or even years.

* There is no proven cause of ME, which is also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, but many sufferers cite an initial viral infection as a possible trigger for the condition.

* Chronic fatigue syndrome is a portmanteau term to describe a set of symptoms that can vary widely from one patient to another.

* Some scientists believe there are likely to be several interacting factors that could initially trigger the condition.

Murder and mercy killings: a thin line

Q. What is the difference between assisted suicide and murder?

A. Assisting in someone's suicide involves giving support to an individual who has made it clear that they want to die. Any intended action that directly leads to someone's death can be murder.

Q. Isn't this a very thin line?

A. Yes, especially when there are no witnesses to say what happened or the defendant declines to give evidence, as was the case in the Gilderdale trial. For a murder charge to succeed the jury must be sure that the defendant intended their actions would directly lead to that person's death.

Q. Why was Bridget Gilderdale charged with attempted murder when she had already admitting assisting in her daughter's suicide?

A. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided that there was enough evidence to show that her actions went beyond helping her daughter commit suicide.

Q. What was the evidence the prosecutors believed supported an attempted murder charge?

A. By injecting a cocktail of drugs and air into her daughter's bloodstream, Mrs Gilderdale went further than simply assisting her suicide.

Q. Why was she tried for attempted murder and not murder?

A. Doctors were unable to say if it was the drugs Lynn Gilderdale administered herself or those given to her by her mother that finally ended her life.

Q. Who decides whether the charge is murder or assisted suicide?

A. This is the job of lawyers working for the CPS. In each case they will consider the evidence and the public interest in bringing a prosecution. Because murder is such a serious crime any evidence to support it will almost certainly lead to a charge.

Q. What is a mercy killing?

A. This is a murder or manslaughter where the defendant acted in the best interests of the victim. If the killing is a murder, as the jury found in the case of Frances Inglis last week, then the judge must sentence the defendant to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum number of years in prison. In a murder case, where the court accepts the defence of diminished responsibility, the charge will be reduced to manslaughter, which will usually lead to a more lenient sentence.

Robert Verkaik