Drinks man was ‘going to commit suicide’

3:09pm Wednesday 3rd October 2007

POLICE searching for a man who had said he was going to commit suicide found him parked at a remote beauty spot and then arrested him for being in charge of a car with excess alcohol.

Blackburn magistrates heard that Lee Joseph Gibson planned to take a lethal mix of booze and tablets to end it all.

Defence solicitor Daniel King told the court his client was pleading not guilty to the charge of the basis that he had no intention of ever driving that or any other car again.

"He went to the Blue Lagoon at Belmont with the serious intention of taking his own life," said Mr King.

"The principal defence is that there was no likelihood of him driving the vehicle before the alcohol level was below the legal limit because he says there was no chance of him driving the vehicle at all. "The only thing he was planning to drive was a celestial chariot."

Neil White, prosecuting, said the issue for trial would be what were Gibson's prospects of "success" in his suicide attempt.

Gibson, 36, of Shop Lane, Higher Walton, Preston, was remanded on bail until his trial.