A man caught on CCTV urinating into bottles and cups that his terminally ill wife later drank from has been spared jail. Keith Foster, 66, launched a campaign of abuse against his wife after turning to drink and drugs following her cancer diagnosis in November 2023, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
The sunbed business owner was said to have "lost the plot" after becoming infuriated when she included her children in her will. Foster made "degrading comments" towards his wife, locked her out of their home, and was "physically intimidating," the court was told on Tuesday.
Campaign of abuse
David Polglase, prosecuting, said Foster was "angered" after learning the victim had left items and the house to three of her children in her will, and a portion of her business to him. "That led to him saying he would attack her parents' house, that he had sorted a black Ford Focus to do so," Mr Polglase said. "She describes being terrified and genuinely fearful that the defendant would try to harm her family."
Foster also accused her of having an affair with a priest and threatened to harm her elderly parents. The marriage was plagued by "issues and problems," with Foster's behaviour having "deteriorated" over time. The victim initiated divorce proceedings around August 2024, with both continuing to live in the same house but "staying apart as much as possible."
CCTV evidence
This led to a "hostile environment," with Foster becoming a heavy drinker, making "horrible comments" and using his stature "to intimidate her, standing over her and being in her face" as well as punching walls. This was accompanied by frequent insults including "slut, slag and gold digger."
Suspicions over Foster's behaviour led his step-daughter to set up a CCTV system in her bedroom, with her mum having then done likewise in her own room, the living room and the kitchen. This came after the former found he had "mixed a bottle of water with what she suspected was urine or cleaning fluid," leaving his wife "feeling nauseous" when she had taken a drink from it.
With his step-daughter also having fallen ill after drinking a coffee which Foster had made for her, the cameras then caught him "urinating into crockery in the kitchen," with three further clips capturing him filling bottles in her room with a yellow liquid. Mr Polglase added of the videos: "He is clearly unaware or does not care that he is being videoed."
Sentencing
Police were called to the family home on January 26 last year. Foster denied his crimes after being arrested and taken into custody at Copy Lane Police Station. He has a total of 10 previous convictions for 17 offences, including robbery as a youth in 1978 and being jailed for wounding with intent in 1991. However, he has no appearances since a drink driving matter in 2007.
Carmel Wilde, defending, said he had expressed remorse, taken responsibility for his actions and admitted that he had "lost the plot." "He did not deal very well with the diagnosis of his wife's cancer," Wilde told the court. "He turned to alcohol as a means of self management when he should have been supporting his wife through a dreadful time for her."
Sentencing, Judge Robert Trevor-Jones said Foster's wife was "immensely vulnerable," but that "instead of standing by her, you seem to have become estranged from her." He added: "On repeated occasions, you locked her out of the house. All of this prompted [the victim's daughter] to set up a camera and, in turn, so did her mother about the house. What they discovered, quite sickeningly, is you going about the house, urinating in various receptacles, including, specifically, a bottle of water by her bedside. She ingested some of it."
Foster admitted controlling and coercive behaviour and two counts of administering a noxious substance with intent to injure, aggrieve or annoy. He was handed a three-year imprisonment suspended for 18 months with a probation requirement and a building choices programme. Foster was also handed restraining orders banning him from contacting his ex-wife and her daughter for four years, as well as being told to pay court costs of £1,500 at a rate of £400 per month.
