Wife denies husband’s antifreeze poisoning

A MAN left blind and deaf after his wife allegedly poisoned him with antifreeze gave evidence against her in court today.

Supported by two hearing specialists and with the use of two hearing aids, Lee Knight, 37, described to the jury at Stafford Crown Court the day he fell ill and was taken to hospital.

His wife Kate Knight, 28, is accused of poisoning him with antifreeze after sinking into financial crisis.

Mr Knight suffered kidney failure, brain damage, has “little or no sight”, and is deaf.

Yesterday, he fought his difficulties and gave evidence for the prosecution at the trial of his wife.

Dressed in a black suit, Mr Knight said he knew nothing about any antifreeze being kept in the house and was not aware of two loans that his wife had taken out.

The accused, of Weston Park, Stoke-on-Trent, broke down in tears as her husband was slowly helped into the court.

She is alleged to have told her neighbour about a plan to poison him, and is said to have announced, “It’s worked” when he fell ill in April 2005.

Judge Simon Tonking told the jury there was nothing wrong with Mr Knight’s power of speech but that he only had “some hearing”.

He said: “Put his predicament to one side and focus on what he is saying and how you assess what he is saying.”

The court heard that Mr Knight was seriously ill in hospital for a total of six months — 16 weeks of that time was spent in a coma.

He described to the jury how he had experienced stomach cramps on the morning he was taken into hospital.

He said: “I went to see my GP in the morning and he told me to drink as much fluids as possible. I could not drink much fluid because I kept being sick.”

The jury was told that Kate Knight set out to murder her husband to clear mounting debts and had considered a “number of methods” before settling on antifreeze, which contains the potentially fatal chemical ethylene glycol.

She denies attempted murder.

Giving evidence, Mr Knight told the jury that it was his wife who dealt with the banking and that the couple had two accounts.

He said he knew nothing about two loans that had been taken out — one in October 2003 for £10,000 (€13,429) and another for £7,000 (€9,398) in March 2004.

The trial has been told that when Kate Knight was arrested in May 2005, police searched the home and discovered a one litre bottle of Tesco antifreeze containing 840ml of the fluid.

When asked if he had ever bought antifreeze from Tesco, he replied: “No, I would not get it from there.”

He said he would buy antifreeze from trade stores, which he knew from his days as a car mechanic because they gave him a discount.

Mr Knight told the court that it was only when he came round from his 16-week coma that he was told his wife may have caused his illness.

He said his mother had asked him if he knew anything about antifreeze in red wine and he replied: “I knew nothing about it at all.”

Kate Knight is alleged to have researched ways of murdering her husband on the internet.

The trial has heard that computer experts uncovered internet records on the family computer that showed evidence of research into the side effects of ecstasy and antifreeze poisoning.

Mr Knight’s mother, Annette Knight, told the court that her son had not been feeling well for a few days before he was admitted to hospital.

She said: “He said he had got flu-like symptoms. He could not go to the toilet, he was being sick and he could not eat anything.”

The trial was adjourned until today.