Mercy for husband who helped wife’s suicide

A DEVOTED husband who helped his wife commit suicide was picking up the pieces of his life last night after being shown mercy by a British judge.

David March, 58, walked free from London’s Old Bailey after receiving a nine-month suspended sentence for assisting her death.

Gillian March, 59, took pills and tied a plastic bag over her head in September, last year, at the couple’s home in Caterham, Surrey.

The multiple sclerosis sufferer wanted to die by her own hand before she became completely paralysed by the progressively debilitating disease.

The court heard she wanted to free her husband in an act of love so he could find someone else to share his life with before he was too old.

After being diagnosed with MS in 1984, she had made two unsuccessful suicide attempts but was saved by her husband.

In a diary started in 1992 and dedicated to her husband, Mrs March wrote: “You know my feelings of wanting to opt out. It is the only way I can cope, having an escape route if things get too bad.”

Mr March was charged with murder following his wife’s death after he told police he had tightened a string around a plastic bag she had placed on her head.

The court heard how he had returned home for lunch and found her in a wheelchair. She died 30 minutes later.

But the murder charge was dropped after a pathologist said it was not possible to say that Mrs March would have lived if the string had not been tightened.

Mr March had told police after his arrest: “She was a fantastic girl and I loved her to bits”.

Friends were full of praise for the selfless way in which he looked after all her needs.

Judge Brian Barker said he was suspending the sentence for a year because of the exceptional circumstances of the case. But he added: “Society may understand your acts but cannot condone them.”

Outside court, Mr March said he was relieved by the sentence. He said: “I just want to be left alone to get on with my life”.

The suspended sentence was welcomed by the pressure group Dignity In Dying, which called for changes in the law.

Chief executive Deborah Annetts said: “This terribly sad case shows once again how the law is failing terminally ill people and their loved ones”.

But the British Council of Disabled People said it was a “slap on the wrist”.