'Everything I thought I knew has been a lie' - Girlfriend of Telford man who poisoned wife with laxatives speaks out

He secretly fed her laxatives over almost three years, making her seriously ill.

Today it emerged Smith had a girlfriend in Shropshire who knew nothing of his personal life or of the allegations against him.

The woman, who does not want to be named, said: "I've always thought he was the kindest man you could meet.

"My sixth sense has been kicking in for a long time, I've caught him out in lies – but I can't believe it's the same man."

Smith, of Wharf Close in St Georges, Telford, pleaded guilty to poisoning his wife with laxatives for three years, leaving her so thin and weak that she could hardly stand.

His girlfriend said almost everything she'd thought she'd known about 63-year-old Smith was a lie and only found out wife Elizabeth existed when she saw the front page of the Shropshire Star on Wednesday.

The two had met on the internet last year and she said he had been nothing but kind. She hasn't felt ill and he's never borrowed so much as a penny from her.

Now she's struggling to reconcile the man she thought she knew with the man making national headlines.

The Shropshire woman said when they had first met, she had felt sorry for him.

"His parents were dead. He seemed sad and lonely," she said.

"I've been there for him every month for eight months. I've spent so much time with him and know nothing about him.

"He can't have been apart from Elizabeth for very long before he met me."

Smith pleaded guilty to slipping laxatives into food he prepared for his wife when he appeared at Ayr Sheriff Court in Scotland earlier this week.

Elizabeth, 62, from Ayr, said her suspicions about Smith were first raised when she noticed thousands of pounds missing from her bank account.

She recorded Smith confessing to poisoning her, at which point he claimed to have cancer and sent pictures to her of him with a tube up his nose.

His new girlfriend didn't know anything about her boyfriend's past.

He'd lied about his name – he called himself Tom – and had been vague about what he does for a living. He said he owned an engineering firm in Wolverhampton, but when pressed couldn't name it. She said: "He was in such a state on the day he appeared in court. He told me he was appearing in court because he'd hit a man, and that at worse it would be a heavy fine and community service.

"I feel like such a fool. He's older than he told me and I'd never even heard about his marriage to Elizabeth. He told me about his three children, but I found them on Facebook and he'd told me they were older than they were.

"I caught him out there. We had a row and cleared the air. There were so many red flags. When I look back now it's obvious."

Since the story broke on Wednesday, she has been in touch with Smith. In a text, he told her he didn't want to lie to her any longer and regretted what he had done.

Elizabeth revealed on Wednesday that Smith had taken money from her bank account. The beauty therapist, who said she fell so ill with the laxatives that she thought she had multiple sclerosis, said she decided to speak out because she wanted to warn others of his dishonesty.

Smith could not be reached for comment.