A man yesterday admitted to trying to poison his wife by pouring household chemicals into her drinks.

The 65-year-old pensioner, Carmel Farrugia, used a petrol additive and other chemicals in an attempt to poison her over a number of months. He once even poured bleach over her toothbrush.

Early last Saturday morning, Mr Farrugia’s wife Anna smelt something rather strange in her mug, like white spirit, and went straight to the police station to make a report after she suddenly realised what her husband was up to.

During arraignment yesterday, defence lawyer Adrian Camilleri and Police Inspector Spiridione Zammit discussed the case with Magistrate Doreen Clarke.

When they returned from the bench, Mr Farrugia, who was standing in the dock looking dishevelled, told the court he would be pleading guilty to giving his wife poisonous substances.

Magistrate Clarke took into consideration his clean police record and handed down an 18-month jail term suspended for four years.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.