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Son gave father suicide weapon

Thursday 30 July 2009 19:00 EDT

A former music teacher has admitted giving his terminally ill father a gun so he could commit suicide in a busy hospital.

Guy Button, 30, smuggled a Second World War Walther PPK handgun and 19 rounds of ammunition into Northampton General Hospital last October, where his father, Ian Button, shot himself in view of other patients on a busy ward. Northampton Crown Court heard the 63-year-old had just been told he had terminal lung disease.

His wife Christine, 63, was in a care home with Alzheimer's. Button, of Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, faces up to five years in jail after admitting two charges of possessing an illegal firearm. Luke Blackburn, defending, said his client admitted he had "misguidedly" given the gun to his father.

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