Couple's daughter refused suicide

Lisa Ainscow says she is "so unhappy"

A woman with Asperger's syndrome whose parents made a suicide pact because they could not cope with her says they asked her to kill herself too.

Bill and Wendy Ainscow, formerly of Wirral, took a mixture of drugs before walking into the sea off Tenerife.

Mr Ainscow, 75, died, and his 64-year-old wife is in hospital.

Their daughter, Lisa, aged 33, told the BBC her mother said she would be "on the streets" if she did not join their pact, as no-one would look after her.

Her parents said in a suicide note their daughter's condition was too much for them to cope with.

She said, if I didn't [kill myself], nobody will help me, I'll be on the streets, begging, selling the Big Issue Lisa Ainscow

The couple, who had been living in Birmingham, were picked up by a fishing boat from the sea last week, only hours after posting their suicide note to the Liverpool Daily Post.

Last year Mr Ainscow, a former sub-postmaster, was jailed for stealing £50,000 in benefit books to help fund his daughter's addiction to spending.

He was freed by the Court of Appeal when it heard about his circumstances.

Miss Ainscow said her mother had asked her to join in their suicide pact.

"She said I had nothing going for me and no future," she said.

Mr and Mrs Ainscow were picked up from the sea by a fishing boat

"She kept saying it will be nice when we're dead because we're going to heaven and meeting my grandmother, all my pets and everything.

"For a few nights, I thought that I should do it, because I didn't have much option.

"She said, if I didn't [kill myself], nobody will help me, I'll be on the streets, begging, selling the Big Issue."

She added: "I just wish somebody would love me and take me away from it all, because I'm so unhappy."

The letter was received by the paper after Mr Ainscow's death

In their letter, Mr and Mrs Ainscow claimed the NHS had failed to help them look after their daughter.

They said she was spending money faster than they could earn it.

The letter reads: "We realise now that this is an impossible task which we have had to abandon as she (Lisa) is proving to be too much for us to cope with.

"There is still no attempt to provide any form of help, therefore we have chosen that the only way out is to end our lives."

'Better services'

Brenda Nally, from the National Autistic Society, said Asperger's sufferers needed to be given more support by mental health and social services.

She said: "There are around half a million people with autism in the UK and most have Asperger's syndrome.

"There needs to be a far better degree of access to services, particularly adults with Asperger's syndrome."