'I just want this to be over' - wife poisoned with laxatives by Telford husband angry at sentencing delay

David Thomas Smith, of Wharf Close in St Georges, Telford, fabricated an elaborate web of lies, telling Elizabeth Smith he was an elite soldier in the SAS and that he owned a multi-million pound factory, a court heard.

Elizabeth, 62, from Ayr in Scotland, said she thought she was dying when she was being poisoned by her husband after he slipped the drugs into food he had prepared.

He admitted the crime last month and was due to be sentenced yesterday, but Sheriff John Montgomery demanded more information about the medical effects of the poisoning before he could sentence Smith. Elizabeth said: "It has been a hellish ordeal and this is just dragging out the agony. I am glad I came to court today so that I could see his face and watch him suffer.

"It was really hard for me to come to court but I felt I had to. I wanted to see justice being done but this delay just makes me think he may get a slap on the wrist. He has admitted poisoning me and one doctor said my symptoms were so bad they thought I had motor neurone disease. What more do they need?"

Smith, who claimed to have cancer after he was exposed as a criminal, made Elizabeth so ill that her friends and family thought she had a terminal illness.

Smith, 63, is now facing jail after admitting poisoning his wife when he appeared at Ayr Sheriff Court last month. The abuse went on throughout their three-year relationship, which began in 2012.

But yesterday at the court the sheriff adjourned the case until next month.

He said: "I need to see a clear link between the administration of laxatives and the consequences thereof."

Elizabeth added: "I just want this to be over and for him to get what he deserves. This is dragging things out, it's torture. I just hope justice is served."

The couple married on Arran in January 2015 but Elizabeth had become so gaunt and unwell, her family thought she was dying.

Smith will be sentenced next month.