No jail for aiding suicide bids

A man who drove over his father's head in an attempt to help him commit suicide has been spared jail.
Brian Bailey, 34, of Gilbert Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex, agreed to help his father Nicholas after he confessed to strangling his estranged wife Susan.

Brian Bailey was given a two-year suspended sentence at Lewes Crown Court on Tuesday, after admitting two counts of aiding and abetting a suicide.

His father died in May after taking an overdose while on trial for murder.

When Nicholas Bailey emerged from beneath the car with just tyre tracks across his face, his son hit him with a three-foot-long spirit level, but again he escaped serious injury, the court heard.

The 58-year-old decorator, who allegedly murdered his wife last August after she moved out of the matrimonial home, had also attempted to take his own life by taking 200 painkillers.

Sentencing, Judge Richard Brown described the case as "extremely unusual and unique".