Woman who killed her terminally ill father walks free from court
A woman who killed her terminally ill father has been allowed to walk free from court with a two-year suspended sentence by a judge who told her: “I recognise I have taken a merciful course.”
Dr Lisa Davenport, 55, smothered Barrie Davenport, 88, with a pillow at his home in Banbury, Oxfordshire, in October 2022.
Oxford crown court heard Mr Davenport had been suffering from terminal pancreatic cancer and was in a great deal of pain during his final few hours of life.
John Price KC, prosecuting, said that staff at Mr Davenport’s retirement complex and a doctor did not suspect foul play because his death was expected to be imminent.
Price said: “When the doctor certified his death at 10pm on 17 October it was believed to be due to natural causes. But that was not so. Mr Davenport had been in fact unlawfully killed by his daughter: this defendant, Lisa Davenport.
“At about 7pm she had smothered her father with a pillow as he lay in his bed.”
Price said Davenport had confessed an hour later to a neighbour and friend of her father about what she had done and asked her not to say anything.
The following morning, Davenport also confessed to the manager of the retirement complex who then reported it to the police.
Price said: “Were it not for those confessions subsequently saying he had been unlawfully killed, it would have not been discovered. The evidence suggests that following his terminal diagnosis this defendant was a devoted carer of her father as his health declined.
“It is accurate to say that no one could have done more for a clearly dying parent than she did.”
The court heard that Mr Davenport was in a great deal of discomfort and there were difficulties in getting his pain management under control.
Price said: “This defendant was distressed by how her father appeared. She asked for him to receive more pain relief. This background might explain why a devoted daughter did what she did to her father that evening.
after newsletter promotion
“The prosecution has always accepted that had there been a trial, it would have been the prosecution’s case that the motivation was clearly done in a ‘belief by the offender that it was an act of mercy’.
“This phrase is accurately describing her motivation for doing what she did.”
After killing her father, Davenport confessed to a friend of his, Angela Pountney.
Pountney told police: “Lisa said: ‘I smothered him.’ I was shocked and could not say anything, and said: ‘Please don’t tell me.’
“She said: ‘I smothered him.’ She said: ‘You must not tell anybody and the family must not know because I will be sent to prison.’”