A man was left deaf, blind and brain-damaged after his young wife spiked his drinks with antifreeze because she had run up debts and wanted to claim against his £50,000 life assurance policy, a court was told yesterday.

Kate Knight, 28, set out to murder her husband, Lee, 37, after taking out bank loans and remortgaging the family home, Stafford Crown Court was told. She considered giving him an overdose of Ecstasy or iron tablets before settling on antifreeze, which contains the poisonous chemical ethylene glycol, it is alleged.

William Davis, QC, for the prosecution, said that Mrs Knight nearly succeeded. Her husband suffered kidney failure and brain damage. His kidneys are damaged irreparably.

The court was told that Mr Knight, a former JCB employee, worked long hours and left the family finances to his wife, who did not work. By the end of 2004 their debts were mounting.

Mr Davis said: “She felt that her husband’s life cover and a large payout from his employer would be the solution to her financial woes. She tried to kill him by poisoning him and considered more than one way of doing so.”

Mrs Knight, of Moreton, Cheshire, denies attempted murder between January and April 2005.

The court was told that she searched the internet to find out the side-effects of Ecstasy. In one Google search she is said to have asked whether eight tablets would constitute a fatal dose.

Later Mr Knight was seen by his mother and colleagues, who said that he had the appearance of someone being fed drugs without his knowledge, the court was told.

Mrs Knight was also said to have considered an overdose of iron and asked a pharmacist about dosages.

Mr Davis said that she then turned to a different potential poison - antifreeze. He added: “Lee Knight did not know and Kate Knight was not telling anyone. Neurological symptoms began and he had weakness and abnormal feelings in his limbs and brain damage which led to his loss of sight and hearing.”

It is alleged that Mrs Knight confided her plot to a neighbour. The court was told that she showed a friend a bottle of wine and a container of antifreeze under the kitchen sink that had 160ml missing.

She told the friend, Sarah Johnson, that she had carried out research on the internet and that a small dose would give her husband kidney failure and a heart attack, the jury was told.

When Mr Knight returned from work on April 5, 2005, he was vomiting and showed symptoms of kidney failure, Mr Davis said. “He was taken to hospital. Doctors were able to identify quickly that he was suffering from acute kidney failure but there was no apparent cause. There was no hint of the ingestion of antifreeze.

“He nearly died in the intensive care unit. “[Mrs] Knight told Miss Johnson, ‘It has worked. Nothing showed up on a biopsy’. This was true because there was no particular indication of antifreeze poisoning. But he had all the hallmarks of ethylene glycol poisoning. [Mrs Knight] told her friend Miss Johnson that she was going to do it but it will become clearer at the end of the case that she quite deliberately poisoned him, intending to kill him.”

Mrs Knight was arrested the next month. She told police that Miss Johnson’s account was wrong. As far as she was concerned there were no significant financial problems.

The prosecution suggested to the jury that Mrs Knight fed the poison to her husband in his wine. The alcohol would mask the taste of antifreeze.

Mr Davis said: “Miss Johnson said that Mrs Knight had spoken of spiking her husband’s drinks with Ecstasy. Mr Knight did have a rash on his face and seemed unwell and his mother advised him to see a doctor.”

Mr Knight is expected to give evidence, but it is not known in what form because he has been unable to talk since the incident.

The trial continues.

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