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Friday, March 12, 2010
A WOMAN who walked free from court a decade ago after the attempted mercy killing of her husband has ended her own life in a Swiss clinic, it emerged yesterday.
Celebrated toymaker Vicki Wood made headlines in 1999 after she admitted the attempted murder of Tim Wood, who had chronic dementia.
Mr Wood died nine months after the failed effort to end his life with a pillow at the couple’s home in Totnes, Devon.
The 67-year-old is understood to have travelled to the Dignitas clinic on Friday, suffering from a debilitating condition affecting her ability to work.
A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokeswoman confirmed yesterday Ms Wood had died in Switzerland on March 5.
Ms Wood’s case was a key part of the early debate on euthanasia in Britain. The couple were married for about 20 years and both were members of a euthanasia society.
After the mercy killing bid, Ms Wood was sentenced to two years’ probation. She put a pillow over her husband’s head after they had apparently been lying in bed together, eating doughnuts and listening to Beethoven.
She remained unrepentant, saying in 2002 she felt she had "let down" her husband.
The couple made clockwork machines, including a motorised Spanish Armada.
More than 100 Britons have travelled to Dignitas to take their own lives.
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