Channel 5 is airing a true crime documentary tonight examining the case of Heather Mook, a woman who poisoned her husband with rat poison and anti-depressants. The programme, "The Poisoning: How to Kill Your Husband", originally aired last year and will be broadcast at 10pm.
In 2008, Mook, then 58, was found guilty of two counts of poisoning so as to endanger life. She had laced her husband John's spaghetti with rat poison and an anti-depressant in an attempt to swindle his mother out of £43,000. Her plan was to leave John sufficiently bewildered to carry out the fraud.
John Mook survived and later said his wife needed help rather than prison, stating: "I think she needs some serious help and I hope she gets it." It also emerged that Mook had a previous conviction from 1982 for poisoning her seven-year-old daughter Teresa with a crushed anti-depressant tablet.
During the trial, prosecutor Adrian Waterman QC said the theft and drugging were linked: "She gave him amitriptyline to avoid discovery of her thefts." The judge described Mook as a "dangerous woman" and handed down an indeterminate sentence, meaning she would be eligible for parole after five years.
