Peter Webber

Peter Webber was poisoned at his home in Kenilworth Court, Styvechale, Coventry, in August 1985.

His 60-year-old wife was tried but acquitted at Birmingham Crown Court on 28 January 1987. The jury were discharged after they were unable to reach a decision.

They had been married for 33 years. Peter Webber had been a storekeeper at Menvier Control Panels on the Midland Oak industrial estate at Holbrooks. His wife had been a cleaner.

It was claimed that she poisoned him because she could no longer bear living with him.

The court heard that suspicion fell on Peter Webber's wife after he died from the poison sodium chlorate, which was found in weedkiller and that a container of the poison was found under the stairs of their maisonette with all the fingerprints wiped off.

Peter Webber had been taken ill in August 1985 and taken to Walgrave Hospital in Coventry where he died. She was said to have poisoned him sometime between 8 and 13 August 1985.

The prosecution submitted that Peter Webber and his wife had had a strange marriage, and that although they slept in the same bed, they cooked their own meals and lived their own lives.

Peter Webber had been born and brought up in Coventry, but he and his wife had lived in Deveon from 1981 until about May 1985.

It was heard that his wife had tried to divorce him in 1978, but without success, and that as a result, over the following seven years she had grown to dislike him, resulting in her having had enough and deciding to kill him.

The prosecution said:

Peter Webber's wife was described as having lived a lonely and isolated life with Peter Webber in Coventry.

It was heard that on Sunday 11 August 1985 Peter Webber became ill. He was shivering, dizzy, aching all over and vomiting. His urine, according to an ambulance man who took him to hospital, had been the colour of Guinness. His condition had puzzled doctors at the hospital until blood tests showed that he had been poisoned by some form of weedkiller.

Based on the strength of the blood tests the police went to their maisonette and made a search during which they found the tub of weedkiller containing sodium chlorate under the stairs.

It was noted that the most interesting thing about the tub was that it had no fingerprints on it even though some of its contents were missing. A crime scene officer said he searched their flat two days after Peter Webber died and found the plastic tub of sodium chlorate under the stairs. He said:

The court heard that Peter Webber had probably swallowed only a small dose of weedkiller. A Home Office forensic scientist based in Birmingham, said that it was generally accepted that 15g grams of the poison was the minimum fatal dose. It was then noted that the tub found had been a 500 gram tub and that it had had 300 grams remaining would have contained 120 grams of the poison. He noted that the larger the amount of poison consumed the quicker would be the reaction to it.

It was then noted that Peter Webber had started to complain of nausea and shivering when he got up on the Sunday morning and the Home Office forensic scientist said:

He said that in tests he had tried a 10% solution of sodium chlorate in water and found that it tasted like sea water, with no after-effects that he could taste. He added:

However, despite being questioned at great length by detectives, Peter Webber's wife denied murdering him. When the police suggested that she may have poisoned her husband, she replied that they made their own meals.

She was not charged with his murder until May 1986 after a file on the case was submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions for consideration.

At her trial, she said that she loved her husband and would never have harmed him and that she believed that he died from an illness.

In an interview with the police she said:

She also told the police that before they moved to Deveon in 1981 that Peter Webber told her that she ought to go and see a solicitor to get advice about a divorce.

The defence noted that Peter Webber's brother had committed suicide by inhaling car exhaust and had talked of taking his own life.

The defence added that although the prosecution had ruled out the possibility that Peter Webber had committed suicide on the grounds that he had been seen to be cheerful just three days before his death, that they didn't think that the jury would be so certain.

An expert in poisons said that Peter Webber might have taken a small dose of the weedkiller in a cry for help, but that he might not have intended to kill himself.

In his closing speech to the jury, the defence said:

However, he also told the jury that they had not to try and solve the mystery as in a detective story, stating:

The jury spent six hours considering their verdict but were unable to agree. The judge then entered a not guilty verdict after the prosecution presented no further evidence.

It was stated that it initially looked as though a re-trial would be ordered, however, the prosecution stated that the police had decided that the interests of justice would not be served by putting the case before another jury.

The prosecution said:

The judge then commented:

It was noted that the trial had already seen one cancellation after a forensic scientist had mumps.

After Peter Webber's wife was acquitted of murder, her brother-in-law said:

By the time of her trial Peter Webber's wife had relocated to Furze Gap in Kingsteignton, Newton abbot, Devon.