30-year sentence for wife who poisoned husband

A HOUSEWIFE who left her husband blind and deaf by poisoning him with anti-freeze was sentenced to 30 years yesterday.

Kate Knight, aged 28, of Meir Hay, Stoke-on-Trent, was convicted at Stafford Crown Court last month of the attempted murder of Lee Knight by lacing his food with ethylene glycol on their seventh wedding anniversary.

Knight was also left with brain damage and kidney failure following the poisoning in April 2005.

The court was told she had planned to use the £130,000 (€170,000) death benefit from her husband’s employer, JCB in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, to pay off mounting debts after forging her husband’s signature to take out two secret loans for £17,000 (€22,000).

The jury heard that Kate Knight searched to find a method of killing, settling on anti-freeze after considering ecstasy or iron tablets.

She administered the anti-freeze in red wine and an Indian takeaway he ate on their wedding anniversary.

Lee Knight, 37, managed to survive despite spending 10 weeks in a coma.

He recently had an operation to restore some of his hearing. He told the court that he knew nothing of his wife’s loans.

Sentencing, Judge Simon Tonking told Kate Knight that she would serve at least 15 years in prison before she is eligible for parole.

Speaking about the impact on her husband, he said: “The devastation you have brought to his life is apparent to everyone who saw him giving evidence in this case. But while he did so there was little or any sign of remorse on your part.”

The public cheered and clapped as Judge Tonking read out his sentence.

Their nine-year-old son, Jack, now lives with his father and paternal grandparents.