The Hereford Times

Woman jailed for poisoning husband

5:14pm Friday 9th May 2008

A career conwoman who poisoned her husband with rat killer and anti-depressants has been given an indeterminate prison sentence.

Heather Mook, 58, tricked her husband John into taking the tablets and rat poison in an attempt to confuse him while she fleeced his mother of £43,000.

Judge James Spencer QC, sitting at York Crown Court, told Mook she was being given an indeterminate sentence to protect the public and she would be considered for parole only after she had served five years.

Bus driver John Mook, 60, was left confused, tired and agitated by the poisoning but later recovered from his ordeal.

Following her conviction at York Crown Court last December, it was revealed that Mook has a previous conviction for poisoning her seven-year-old daughter in 1982.

On that occasion she crumbled an anti-depressant into the child's food. It is believed she poisoned her husband by lacing his spaghetti bolognese with rat pellets.

She also has a string of previous convictions for dishonesty and deception - including a £5 million luxury car and property scam.

Mook, of Heslington Road, York, was found guilty of two counts of poisoning her husband so as to endanger his life. She had already admitted less serious alternative charges, including administering rat killer and 19 theft-related offences.

At her trial, the jury was told Mr Mook was tricked into taking tablets - possibly as many as nine on one occasion - while he was mending a garage door. His wife persuaded him to take them, claiming that they were muscle relaxants.

While he was in hospital recovering from the poisoning she again tricked him into taking more tablets, the court heard. She admitted giving him the poison but denied that she intended to endanger his life.