High Court judge says man who helped his father die was 'wrongfully accused' of murder
A High Court judge has thrown out a murder charge against a chemist who admitted the mercy killing of his father as he said a conviction would have been "perverse and irrational".
Mr Justice Green said that Bipin Desai had been "wrongfully accused of murder" and told the jury to deliver not guilty verdicts.
The jury had earlier heard how Desai had poured a highly-concentrated dose of morphine into a fruit smoothie for his father, Dhirajlal Desai, 85, at their home in Surrey.
He checked on him five minutes later and then injected him with insulin as he slept, the jury had heard.
The 59-year-old had been prosecuted for murdering his father and assisting in a suicide. The judge ruled that Mr Desai had wanted to die and said there was no basis for a murder conviction.
The judge said the evidence "provides no support for the prosecution case, to the contrary it unequivocally supports the defence position that this is assisted suicide but not murder."
He said: "Your acts of assistance were acts of pure compassion and mercy. Your father had a solid and firm wish to die. For him, being assisted to die would be fulfilling his wish of going to heaven to see his wife and being put out of his misery."
He added: "You are free to now go with your family and start the process of rebuilding your life."
Defending, Natasha Wong QC said: "The reality, in this case, is a very sad situation because what we have is a man who wanted to die, not because he was terribly ill but, sadly, because he had just had enough of life and there are no real authorities who deal with that situation."
A letter to the judge, written by Desai's wife of 29 years, Dipti Desai, was read out to Guildford Crown Court by Ms Wong, which explained that her husband had also tried to kill himself on several occasions.
"Since August 2015 our lives have been turned completely upside down and have never been the same for any of us," she read.
Desai also admitted two charges of theft by an employee, relating to the insulin and morphine.
Sentencing him, Mr Justice Green indicated that the sentencing was only for the assisted suicide.
"The thefts are trivial and only form part of the fabric of the wider case. The owner of the pharmacy said in his evidence that you were an honest, respectful and decent man.
"He cared not for the small bottle of [concentrated morphine solution] Oramorph or the small amount of insulin."
Desai was allowed to go free with a nine month jail sentence suspended for nine months.
