A former hospital chef who laced her cheating husband’s cake with rat poison in a bid to "stop him leaving the house to see his mistress" was spared jail today.
A judge told Yvonne Godwin, 56, that she was not a "criminal in any shape or form" after hearing she was "driven over the edge" by 30 years of abuse at the hands of her husband Robert.
She finally reached breaking point when she learned he was having an affair with her best friend’s sister and baked two cakes laced with blue rat poison
Yvonne Godwin, who worked in a hospital kitchen, was spared jail after baking a cake laced with poison for her cheating husband, Robert
But the grey-haired grandmother confessed to the police the next day and admitted she had tried to poison her former husband, and had also eaten some of the cake herself.
The once-married couple, who have been together for more than 30 years, had divorced 17 years ago but reconciled shortly after.
Godwin, of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, was recovering from cancer when she discovered her partner’s infidelity and was not "seeing things very straight at all", the court heard.
Yvonne Godwin (circled) leaves Gloucester Crown Court after she was spared jail for administering poison
She pleaded guilty to trying to poison Mr Godwin, 63, a retired builder, but the court heard she had only used a teaspoon of rat poison in his fruitcake.
She would have needed to up the dose to more than 3lbs to have killed him, Gloucester Crown Court was told.
Family members gasped and cheered when Judge Jamie Tabor said Godwin would not have to serve an immediate prison sentence.
The 56-year-old was instead handed a 12-month prison sentence suspended for 24 months.
Judge Tabor said Mr Godwin, who sat in court apart from the couple’s children, had asked his former partner to go back to him.
But the judge ordered her not to see her husband for 12 months as a condition of her sentence.
Robert Godwin was believed to have been having an affair with Julie Morrison
Mrs Godwin discovered in March that her husband was having an affair.
Prosecutor Lisa Hennessy said she told a neighbour on March 6 ‘that she hated her husband, that he was having an affair and that she wanted him dead’.
The shocked neighbour contacted police after Mrs Godwin said she had made ‘a nice fruitcake’ for her husband.
Police were sent to the couple’s home in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, but Mrs Godwin denied the plot.
But a day later she went back to police and admitted she had lied, and that she had put poison in a fruitcake for Mr Godwin but also in a chocolate cake for herself.
Judge Jamie Tabor QC said he believed the attempted poisoning was a cry for help in the Godwins’ troubled 30-year relationship, and not an attempted murder.
Mr Godwin, fearful of retribution from the family, was escorted from the court building by police.
Defending barrister Emily Durston told the court the amount of poison in the cake was not enough to kill a human.
Ms Durston presented the court with medical records dated back to 1975, which revealed numerous occasions when Godwin, a mother-of-five, had reported domestic abuse to her GP.
The barrister said: "She was at breaking point. There had been a long history of abuse. Shortly before the incident she had discovered an affair had taken place.
"That discovery sent her over the edge."
Ms Durston said a small amount of poison had been placed in the cake and it would take a "kilo and a half" to kill a person.
She said: "Mrs Godwin wanted to make Mr Godwin ill so he couldn’t leave the house. She wanted to stop him leaving the house so he wouldn’t go and see his mistress."
Ms Durston said Godwin was a trained chef, who worked at Delancey Hospital in Cheltenham, before she was diagnosed with cancer five years ago.
The 56-year-old has been in custody for two-and-a-half months and has received letters from Mr Godwin asking her to get back with him. She has stopped responding to the letters, the court heard.
The cake laced with poison that Godwin fed to her husband
Judge Tabor said letters from Mrs Godwin’s five children revealed she had suffered years of physical and verbal abuse, and her medical records showed she had complained of domestic violence since the 1970s.
He said he had also received a letter from Mr Godwin, who had asked his former wife to go back to him, and added: ‘He pleads for mercy on her behalf.’
"Had you been charged with trying to kill your husband, I would have no alternative but to send you to prison for a long time," said the judge
He added: "But you’ve not been charged with that, and that’s very important for people to know.
"I’ve got to look at what was going on in your life at that time. You’ve been a mother to several children. You’ve worked hard in several places of employment. You are not a criminal in any shape or form."
The judge explained: "You were recovering from cancer, you were in an abusive relationship and you discovered that your husband – not himself in the first blush of youth – was being unfaithful to you.
‘If you had simply poisoned him because he had been unfaithful you would not be escaping being sent to prison, but there was a great deal more going on in your life.
The judge said Godwin had not simply tried to punish Mr Godwin for having an affair and "there was much more going on than that".
He said: "In my judgment (this) meant you weren’t seeing things straight at all."
After collapsing, Godwin lay on the court floor for nearly 10 minutes as court staff came to her aid.
There were dramatic scenes in court as Mrs Godwin collapsed and her husband left with a police escort over fears for his safety.
He refused to comment, but at an earlier hearing he insisted that his wife was innocent and should not have been charged.
He said: "She was working in the kitchen one day. I popped out and when I came back she was gone.
"I thought she had gone to the shop. I found out later that she had taken herself down to the police station and said ‘Lock me up because I’m trying to hurt myself and my husband’.
"I don’t think she put poison in anything. There’s nothing wrong with me. She is a wonderful woman and a loving, caring person."
Mrs Godwin left the courthouse in tears, and had to be physically supported by her children.
They refused to comment but said she had stopped replying to her husband’s letters and was trying to rebuild her life.
Friends said Mrs Godwin was "a wonderful cook" who had worked at a local hospital until her cancer diagnosis five years ago.
Paulette Rogers said: "People see her as the victim. This was completely out of character. Everyone feels sorry for her and no one has an iota of sympathy for Robert.’
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