A peaceful end for 'suicide pact' man

A Westbury-sub-Mendip man, who was on police bail on suspicion of murder after surviving a suicide pact with his wife, passed away in his sleep on Saturday.

Dr William Stanton, 79  who was suffering from terminal cancer, was arrested on the suspicion of murder following the discovery of his wife Angela, 74 on the 29th September, 2009. The post mortem found that Mrs Stanton had died from suffocation.

On release on police bail he defended their actions saying that he and his wife did not want to be separated.

"What we did..., was entirely reasonable for two rational, non-religious people who'd reached the end of their lives, in which they'd enjoyed so much," he said.

Dr Stanton told the Sunday Times that two years before his illness started to seriously affect him his wife said: "When you go, I want to go too."

The article in The Sunday Times says that Dr Stanton had used his knowledge of cave diving to try to create a painless way of suicide by using helium to suffocate themselves.

But it is said the method failed for Dr Stanton and he was not able to find the equipment he needed to complete his own suicide attempt.

Dr Stanton and his wife were found in the bedroom by a neighbour. They had reportedly invented a reason for their neighbour to visit soon after they had killed themselves.

Dr Stanton had said he wanted to be buried alongside his wife at a woodland site on Salisbury Plain.

Samaritans is a charity that helps people in distress or troubled by thoughts of suicide. They can be contacted by phone on 08457 909090 or at www.samaritans.org.