Have ever looked up someone from your past on the net.....

Susan Barber

The Barbers were married in 1970. Michael was a 24-year-old unskilled worker and his bride, Susan, was 17-years-old and brought with her a child of a previous liaison, though Michael thought the six-month-old daughter was his. They lived in a pre-war terraced house in Osborne Road, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. Michael had had previous encounters with the law, for car-theft and traffic offences and in 1972 he was again in trouble, this time for indecently assaulting his six-year-old niece.

By 1980 the Barbers had three children and Susan had a regular lover in the shape of 15-year-old Richard Collins, who lived three doors away. When Michael went off at 5am, to his job as a packer at a local cigarette factory, Richard would nip round and hop in next to Susan while the bed was still warm.

Saturday 31st March 1981 saw Michael up even earlier. He was going on a fishing trip in the Thames estuary with some friends and he had left home by 4am. Conditions were dangerous in the estuary due to a high wind and the trip was cancelled. Michael returned home and found his place in bed, and his wife, being kept warm for him by Richard. Michael hit them both and Richard got out quickly.

The following Tuesday found them at their local doctor's surgery where Susan wanted treatment for a bruise on her ear where Michael had hit her. The doctor offered to help resolve their marital difficulties and Susan expressed a willingness to patch things up. This didn't include cutting young Richard out her life though and she stayed in touch secretly by letter.

On Thursday 4th June 1981, Michael complained at his works' clinic of a severe headache. The next day the headache was accompanied by stomach pains and nausea. By Saturday he was poorly enough to call a doctor, who prescribed an antibiotic. Monday saw Michael with breathing difficulties and he was admitted to Southend General Hospital and placed in intensive care. On Wednesday 17th June he was transferred to Hammersmith Hospital with a severe kidney condition.

The doctors were baffled at Michael's deterioration and, when no specific infection could be identified, the question of paraquat poisoning was raised. Junior staff were instructed to obtain blood and urine samples and to send them to the National Poisons Reference Centre for analysis. It was understood that this had been done and that a negative result had been received back.

Michael Barber died on 27th June. A post-mortem was carried out by Professor David Evans and both he and his pupil were informed that tests had disproved the paraquat poisoning theory. Major organs were preserved and, although both pathologists suspected paraquat poisoning, judgement was reserved until histology slides became available.

Michael Barber was cremated at Southend on July 3rd. The same night Richard moved in with Susan. Michael's employers agreed that she should have a £15,000 death benefit plus £300 per annum for each child and she received these in October. By now Susan was having the time of her life. Richard's place had been taken by another live-in lover and Susan had purchased a CB radio and used the call-sign 'Nympho'. She soon became the centre of a regular orgy of drink and sex. What she didn't know was that the net was slowly tightening.

In September Professor Evans had received the histology slides. These indicated that Michael had ingested a toxic substance, probably paraquat. He sent his report to the renal unit. This caused some dismay as they had been told that the tests for paraquat had been negative. It was decided to hold a conference in January 1982, to sort out these anomolies. A doctor preparing material for the conference noticed that Barber's file held no notes about the examination of samples. Inquiries made at the National Poisons Reference Centre revealed that the samples had never been sent for analysis. Tissue samples were quickly recovered from the mortuary and sent to ICI, the manufacturers of paraquat. Serum samples went to the National Poisons Unit. The results came back quickly, both confirming the presence of paraquat.

Nine months after her husband's death Susan Barber was arrested at her home. Richard Collins was arrested the same day. Their trial at Chelmsford Crown Court began on November 1st 1982 with Barber being charged with murder, conspiracy to murder and of administering poison with intent to injure. Collins was charged with conspiracy to murder. Both pleaded not guilty. Susan Barber admitted putting the poison on her husband's food but maintained that she didn't want to kill him, she just wanted to make him ill so that she could get away without him coming after her. They were both found guilty. Susan Barber was sentenced to life imprisonment and Richard Collins to two years'.