A fantasist who poisoned his wife with laxatives for three years is set to be freed from jail after serving just 21 months in prison.
David Smith was jailed for three-and-a-half years after hiding pills inside the food of his partner Elizabeth, leaving her so weak that relatives thought she was dying.
He also stole thousands of pounds from her bank account and told a series of lies, including that he was an SAS hero involved in the 1980 Iranian embassy siege.
The 62-year-old also claimed to build secret components for the Ministry of Defence and that his first wife was a ballerina who had died while she was pregnant.
David Smith was jailed for three-and-a-half years after hiding pills inside the food of his partner Elizabeth (pictured together), leaving her so weak that relatives thought she was dying
In reality he worked as a tool maker for his former father-in-law’s factory and had left his wife and three children just a month before meeting Elizabeth.
She told the Daily Record: ‘Where is the justice in this? Sentenced to 42 months, only to serve less than 21.
‘I suffered for three-and-a-half years at the hands of this evil man. I just thought I had met the perfect man.
‘But he poisoned me and stole thousands from me. He made me so ill. I loved him with every bone in my body. Now I hate him. He told me so many lies.’
Smith was convicted in 2017 of culpably and recklessly administering laxative substances over a three-year period from 2012 to 2015.
Sheriff John Montgomery told Smith in a court in Ayr, Ayrshire, that his conduct had caused ‘physical and mental anguish’ to his victim.
Sheriff John Montgomery told Smith in a court in Ayr, Ayrshire, that his conduct had caused ‘physical and mental anguish’ to his wife (pictured)
Smith had made his wife, a beauty therapist from Ayr, so ill through his poisoning that doctors believed she might have had motor neurone disease.
The couple had met at a TK Maxx store in Ayr and the couple quickly began a romantic relationship.
But after about six months Elizabeth began to become ill and before long she found herself bedridden, suffering from exhaustion and fainting over a period of two years.
She married Smith on the Scottish island of Arran in January 2015 but by this time had become so gaunt and unwell that her family feared for her life.
Her husband’s web of lies began to reveal itself after he staged a break-in at their house.