Carer jailed for life for killing ill father

A transgender carer who suffocated her bedridden father as an “act of mercy” due to his multiple sclerosis has been jailed for at least four years.

Claire Darbyshire, aged 36, killed 67-year-old Brian at their home in Dagenham, east London, on September 2 last year.

Afterwards, she claimed they had made a “suicide pact” as his illness had become intolerable and she did not want to go on without him.

But following a trial at the Old Bailey, a jury found Darbyshire guilty of murder — rejecting the lesser offences of manslaughter or assisting a suicide.

The Recorder of London, Nicholas Hilliard, jailed her for life with a minimum term of four years, saying he accepted that she believed it was an act of mercy.

He said the key to the case was that she failed to establish that her father had agreed she would also kill herself in a suicide pact.

He said she had unlawfully killed her father behind “closed doors” and no defences to murder applied.

Prosecutor Jonathan Rees told jurors Mr Darbyshirehad not expressed any suicidal thoughts or complained about being in pain to nurses who visited him.

Darbyshire complained to a friend about having to look after him and appeared to be getting more and more stressed.

After the killing, she caught a train to the Dover area, having texted the district nurse to visit “asap”.

On September 3, Darbyshire approached a National Trust worker on the cliffs for help and ended up with support services in Canterbury.

Five days later, she mentioned the suicide, saying they had both taken an overdose which failed to work on September 1, before she suffocated her father.

On September 10, police discovered Mr Darbyshire’s body in his bed with a suit, teddy bear, and various handwritten notes nearby.