A Channel 5 documentary is set to air this evening (Wednesday, May 14) delving into the chilling crimes of Heather Mook, a woman found guilty of poisoning her husband whilst swindling his mother out of £43,000. The Yorkshire conwoman, Heather Mook, is the focus of the upcoming documentary The Poisoning: How to Kill Your Husband.
In 2007, Heather Mook was apprehended in the act of slipping amitriptyline pills, an anti-depressant that can cause confusion in large doses, to her husband John. Following a meticulous police investigation, Heather Mook was convicted of poisoning her husband, after going to measures as extreme as adding rat poison pellets to his spaghetti bolognese in an attempt to prevent him from discovering her theft of £43,000 from his mother.
After enduring months of forced medication, John was left on the brink of death in hospital, leading to Mook being sentenced to an ‘indefinite’ prison term for her crimes. This shocking case will be examined in Poisoning: How to Kill Your Husband, which airs on Channel 5 at 10pm tonight.
Who was Heather Mook?
Heather Mook was a fraudster who, in 2007, was convicted of poisoning her husband. She was labelled as a ‘very dangerous woman’ by a judge following her trial where she was imprisoned for drugging her husband while pilfering £43,000 from his terminally ill mother, reports Birmingham Live.
John Mook, a father of three from a previous marriage, had planned to use the money to fund his mother’s care in a nursing home. The bus driver was duped into consuming anti-depressant tablets which left him disoriented and hallucinating whenever he attempted to discuss the family’s financial matters.
In 2003, Mr Mook’s mother Freda sold her house for £35,000, investing the proceeds in five funds, and moved in with her son and his wife. She also had £8,000 savings tucked away in a Yorkshire Bank account.
Meanwhile, Heather Mook swindled her mother-in-law’s life savings – splurging some of it on a breast reduction while falsely claiming to her family that she had breast cancer.
During the trial, it came to light that Mook would spike her husband John’s spaghetti bolognese with rat poison when she feared her web of lies would unravel. After an eight-month police probe, Heather Mook was found guilty of two counts of poisoning her husband with Amitryptyline with intent to endanger his life, having previously confessed to one count of administering him rat poison with intent to harm him.
Mook also pleaded guilty to two additional charges of giving him the anti-depressant with intent to injure him and 19 fraud offences. Throughout the court case, the jury was privy to details of her life filled with lies and deception.
Back in 1982, she poisoned her six year old daughter with anti-depressants and stole money and jewellery from a former husband, later feigning terminal illness to con people out of money.
Where is Heather Mook now?
In 2008, a judge decreed that Heather Mook must serve a minimum of five years in prison before she could apply for parole. However, the judge stated that Heather would only be considered if the Parole Board deemed her no longer a threat.
In the documentary, John Mook reveals that he shockingly continued to visit Heather for ten years while she served her prison sentence, until his family gave him an ultimatum forcing him to stop. He eventually filed for divorce, and he hasn’t seen Heather, who ended up serving 11 years, since.
Channel 5’s The Poisoning: How to Kill Your Husband is set to broadcast on Channel 5 at 10pm on Wednesday, May 14.
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