Wife admits husband poison plot

Lees once laced a Chinese takeaway with poison

A wife from a Cornish village has admitted poisoning her husband three times in four months.

Linda Lees, 45, admitted three counts of slipping drugs into her Royal Navy husband Paul Lees' food and drink after their relationship deteriorated.

Lees, from Bosnoweth, Helston, appeared at Truro Crown Court to face the charges committed in March, April and July this year in Helston and Exeter.

Mother-of-one Lees was bailed for sentencing on 7 October.

Date rape drug

Her engineer husband Paul, also aged 45, met her when he was posted from Portsmouth to the Naval Air station at Culdrose, near Helston.

But six months ago, after 23 years of marriage and affairs by both, he decided the relationship was going to end.

Lees used her own tranquilisers or the date rape drug GHB to stupefy her husband, apparently to find out if he was in another relationship.

In one incident she intercepted his food at an Exeter restaurant and laced it with poison by telling the waiter she was going to put her wedding ring into the meal.

She told the waiter she was having a romantic reconciliation with her husband and wanted to surprise him by finding the ring in his meal.

'Crime of passion'

Instead he became groggy and realised he had been poisoned.

In another incident Lees poisoned a Chinese takeaway meal.

After the case Det Con Martin Skinner said: "This really was a crime of passion.

"It is fair to say there had been a strained relationship throughout the 23 years they had been married.

"Paul Lees is in the forces and his long absences led to the relationship deteriorating.

"It appears she may have been trying to find out if he had any other relationship going on."