A JEALOUS wife tried poisoning her husband three times in a

bid to make him confess details about an affair.

Car hire manager Linda Lees twice put poison – an

“odourless, tasteless” substance – into her husband Paul's

takeaway meal after their 23-year marriage collapsed.

On one occasion, she duped a waiter at an Exeter restaurant

by claiming to have a ring to put in her husband's food as a

romantic gesture, but instead dissolved sedatives into the

dish.

Lees yesterday pleaded guilty to three counts of

administering a poisonous substance to her 43-year-old husband

Paul, who is in the Royal Navy, with intent to injure or

aggrieve him in what police said was “a crime of passion”.

Lees, 45, from Helston in West Cornwall, concealed strong doses

of a “colourless and odourless” sedative drug in food and drink

given to her husband to put him in a stupefied state.

Truro Crown Court was told that the offences were committed

in March, April and July. Sentencing was adjourned for

reports.

Mr Lees, who was not present in court yesterday, is not

thought to have suffered permanent ill-effects from the

attempted poisoning.

Police say Mrs Lees suspected her husband of being

unfaithful, and administered an unnamed toxin to try to coax

him into admitting infidelity.

Speaking outside the court, Det Con Martin Skinner from

Devon and Cornwall Police said the couple had a strained

relationship as Mr Lees spent a long time away in Portsmouth

with the armed forces where he is thought to work as an

avionics lecturer.

He said that Mr Lees was seeing another woman and his wife

wanted to find out details about the affair despite her having

had a long-term on-off relationship with a near-neighbour

herself.

Det Con Skinner said: “It really was a crime of passion. Six

months ago, he decided the relationship was going to end, she

agreed with him but hid the fact it was not what she wanted at

all.”

The couple have a daughter, Hannah, 21, who was at court

yesterday.

“The drastic action was taken by her to stupefy him to find

out what relationship he was involved in now,” said Det Con

Skinner. “He had no idea what was happening – there is a good

chance he had been stupefied more than a few times.”

Truro magistrates were told on July 22 that on the first

occasion in March, Lees invited her husband to Helston to

discuss their marriage. They had a takeaway Chinese meal and a

bottle of wine and he remembered the wine tasting salty.

The court was told that Mr Lees remembered waking up in bed

with his wife standing over him wearing latex gloves.

Det Con Skinner said that the second poisoning took place

during a meal at a restaurant in Exeter. Lees distracted a

waiter saying she wanted to hide her wedding ring in the food

as a surprise to help rekindle the marriage and took the

opportunity to slip in the poison.

The police became involved after the third poisoning when

Lees put drugs in her husband's takeaway Chinese meal at the

Helston home during what was supposed to be the couple's final

weekend together.

Det Con Skinner said: “They planned to have a weekend

reminiscing together. She poisoned him again in a Chinese

takeaway which she collected.”

Truro Magistrates Court previously heard that after the

third incident, Lees told police that she had put the sedative

temazepam in his tea.

Lees was released on bail to stay at her mother's house in

Helston until sentencing. She is expected back in court on

October 7.