KATIE DAWSON A housewife who left her husband blind and deaf when she poisoned him with anti-freeze was last night beginning a 30-year jail sentence.
Kate Knight, 28, used "premeditated planning of a most callous kind" when she attempted to murder Lee Knight by lacing his food with ethylene glycol on their seventh wedding anniversary, Stafford Crown Court heard.
Mr Knight, 37, spent 10 weeks in a coma and was left with brain damage, and kidney failure - which means he needs a transplant after the poisoning in April 2005.
Judge Simon Tonking told her: "The devastation you have brought to his life is apparent to everyone who saw him giving evidence in this case. But while he did so there was little, if any, sign of remorse on your part." Knight rocked back and forth, cried, and appeared shaken during the sentencing hearing.
Last month a jury at Stafford Crown Court took eight hours to convict Knight, of Stoke-on-Trent, of attempted murder after a three-week trial.
The court was told she had planned to use the £130,000 death benefit from her husband's employer, JCB in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, to pay off mounting debts after forging her husband's signature to take out two secret loans for £17,000.
Knight, a former brewery worker, used the internet search engine Google to find a method of killing, settling on anti-freeze after considering using ecstasy or iron tablets, the jury was told.
Knight, who married at 19, administered the anti-freeze to her husband in red wine and an Indian takeaway he ate on their wedding anniversary.
Jurors had heard evidence that Knight asked a near neighbour, Sarah Johnson, if she knew a hitman.
She also told Miss Johnson about her plot to poison Mr Knight, showing her anti-freeze in her kitchen cupboard and inviting her to smell it through the wine.
Yesterday the court heard that Knight was "living in a world of fantasy" and her idea to kill her husband began as "idle musings of a bored and lonely housewife" which eventually became a reality.
DC Martin Smith, who led the police investigation into Knight's plot, said in a statement: "Kate Knight cynically and ruthlessly plotted to murder her husband and cover her tracks.
"Knight left a trail of evidence which, through detailed investigation, we were able to build into a strong case resulting in her prison sentence today.
"Lee, with the help of his parents, has started to rebuild his life with his young son. I hope today's outcome will allow this to continue."
Judge Tonking said Knight's crime came at the "top of the scale" for sentencing attempted murder cases.
Mr Knight has virtually no sight and is registered blind. He is also profoundly deaf, has no kidney function and some paralysis of his facial muscles.
He is awaiting consideration for a kidney transplant from his brother, the court heard.
Mr Knight recently underwent an operation to restore some of his hearing, but required two hearing aids and support from two specialists to give evidence at his wife's trial.
In a statement read out by police after the verdict in January, Mr Knight said: "Kate has ruined my life and what she did will have a big effect on (their son) Jack's future. I have hardly any independence any more - I need to have somebody with me all the time. I don't think I'll ever be able to work again."
Knight will be eligible for parole after serving 15 years.
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