UK: Woman poisons couple with lethal substance yet is cleared of attempted murder in second instance

Submitted by MichaelClaymore on Thu, 2010-02-11 03:46

Story here. Excerpt:

'A British woman has been convicted of killing her lover by lacing his curry with the 'Queen of Poisons'.
...
Ms Singh poisoned a leftover curry in the fridge of her lover's home in west London with aconite, known as the Queen of Poisons. It hasn't been used in England since 1882. The mother of three had sneaked into the couple's home to spike the food.

Mr Singh died hours after eating the curry, while his 21-year-old fiance, Gurjeet Choongh, fell violently ill but survived.

The couple ate the meal while they discussed their upcoming wedding, due to take place on Valentine's Day last year.
...
Singh was also found guilty of causing Miss Choongh grievous bodily harm with intent but was cleared of attempted murder.'

Like0 Dislike0

Comments

So if she was found guilty of murdering her ex-bf, why with the same poison in the same food which she could be pretty sure both of them would be eating is she not also found guilty of attempted murder of his new gf? Sorry, I am not a legal scholar (though sometimes think I am), but I find it much more likely if the genders were reversed we would have seen a much harder set of convictions for the (male) defendant.

Like0 Dislike0
Submitted by Matt on Thu, 2010-02-11 16:13

It is odd. But at least she was convicted of murder, rather than some "manslaughter due to diminished responsibility" verdict. Perhaps, as far as the poisoning of the girlfriend is concerned it would help to know the proportion of women to men on the jury.

Like0 Dislike0
Submitted by sirprince on Thu, 2010-02-11 19:37

Wait for this to be changed to 6-months probation on "good behavior." You go wymens!

MAJ

Like0 Dislike0
Submitted by digital_dreamer on Thu, 2010-02-11 22:16

manonthestreet

You could be right digital-dreamer. But I think though this could happen it probably will not ( I am not certain you understand) .This happened in the UK and although women are cosseted just like in the USA the law is still reasonable robust when it comes to some of the extreme forms of feminist pressure. She was given a minimum tariff of I think 23 years. That's quite a long time and represent how serious the court took the crime to be.

I could be completely wrong on this. But as of now this is my expectation.

Like0 Dislike0
Submitted by trotter on Fri, 2010-02-12 17:33