A TOP scientist at a South Yorkshire hospital dosed his estranged wife with anaesthetic before smothering her with a cushion as their children slept upstairs, a court heard.
Andrew Booth, aged 44, is alleged to have stolen a bottle of anaesthetic Enflurane from Doncaster Hospital, where he was head of biomedical sciences, soaked some in a cloth, and used it to knock out his wife Lorraine.
Sheffield Crown Court was tol
d he then suffocated her with a cushion - as their daughter, aged 21, and 12-year-old son slept upstairs - before calling for an ambulance.
Prosecutor Jeremy Richardson QC said Booth told ambulance staff he found his drunk wife dead on the floor, and at first the police did not treat the case as suspicious.
But when Mrs Booth's friends expressed concern, a second, forensic, post mortem examination was held. It found she died from suffocation and revealed Enflurane in her blood.
Mr Richardson said police found a bottle of the anaesthetic missing from the stores at Doncaster Hospital.
He added: "It's the prosecution's case the defendant killed Lorraine Booth by smothering her with a cushion after first having tried to kill her, or at least render her unconscious, by administering an anaesthetic."
Booth, of Tankersley Lane, Hoyland Common, Barnsley, denies murdering his wife on July 11 last year.
The court heard the couple had separated and were negotiating a divorce, including plans for him to pay her £60,000.
Mr Richardson said Booth had told a work colleague he could not afford to pay the amount. He told another he did not expect his wife to live long enough to benefit from the money.
After the split Lorraine Booth moved to a flat above The Hare and Hounds pub in Hoyland, but regularly returned home to see her children.
Mr Richardson said she was a heavy social drinker but not an alcoholic.
He added: "It's quite clear she liked a drink or two but she was not an alcoholic, although the defendant was telling nearly everyone she was.
"Lorraine Booth told her friends he was spiking her drinks and, on occasion, she appeared very drunk when those around her said she had not been drinking excessively."
A post mortem examination found no signs of alcoholic liver disease, he added.
Mr Richardson said Booth had given three different versions of the events surrounding his wife's death.
In the first he said he woke and found his wife dead on the floor. In a subsequent police interview he said he pushed a cushion on her face after a violent row and then left her, believing she had passed out.
Mr Richardson said the third version, the only one to mention Enflurane, came in a later defence statement.
Booth claimed he took home an unmarked bottle from hospital which was spilled in the utility room of the home.
Lorraine Booth cleaned it up with a cloth. The couple then had a violent row, during which he grabbed the cloth and used it to muffle her so as not to disturb their children.
He thought she had passed out and "made her comfortable".
But later he saw her lips were blue and called an ambulance after attempting resuscitation, Mr Richardson said.
He added: "It is the prosecution's case that this is a wholly bogus account and a perversion of the true facts. He told lie after lie."
The trial continues.
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