Police question euthanasia widow over husband's death
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A widow who accompanied her terminally ill husband to Switzerland where a charity helped him to commit suicide is to be investigated by police.
Winifred Crew, 71, could face charges under the Suicide Act 1961 if she is found to have aided or abetted her husband, Reginald, to end his life, an offence punishable by up to 14 years in jail. A television crew who travelled with the couple from their home in Liverpool on Monday and are making a film on the death could also face charges.
To remove uncertainty over assisted suicide – which is legal in Switzerland, but not in Britain – the Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir David Calvert-Smith QC, plans to issue guidance on the law. A spokeswoman for the DPP said it was a "complex area of law" and would take time to consider.
Merseyside Police said they were obliged to investigate. "The decision is not a moral one, it is a legal one," a spokeswoman said.
Mr Crew, 74, who had motor neurone disease, had regularly voiced the wish to die. In Zurich, the charity Dignitas helped him to achieve his wish with a dose of barbiturates.
Mrs Crew appears to have known the risk she was taking. Before travelling to Zurich, she reportedly said: "I have come to the stage now where life is so bad that even if they put me in prison when I come back, I don't care."