‘Devoted daughter’ avoids prison after ‘mercy killing’ of terminally ill father

A woman who killed her terminally ill father has been spared prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter.

Warning: Some viewers may find details in this story distressing

Dr Lisa Davenport was allowed to walk away with a two-year suspended sentence by a judge who had said he was taking a “merciful course”.

She smothered her elderly father Barrie with a pillow at his home in Banbury, Oxfordshire, in October 2022.

The 88-year-old man had been suffering acute pain from terminal pancreatic cancer, and there had been problems getting his pain medication under control, Oxford Crown Court heard.

No foul play was suspected of Davenport, 55, because her father had been expected to die imminently, prosecuting KC John Price said.

“When the doctor certified his death at 10pm on October 17 it was believed to be due to natural causes,” he said.

“But that was not so,” he continued. “At about 7pm she had smothered her father with a pillow as he lay in his bed.”

An hour later Davenport confessed to a neighbour and friend of her father, asking her not to tell anyone.

But by the morning she had also told the manager of the retirement complex, who reported it to the police, Mr Price told the court.

“Were it not for those confessions subsequently saying he had been unlawfully killed, it would have not been discovered,” Mr Price said.

‘Distressed and devoted carer’

He said the defendant was a “devoted carer of her father” following his diagnosis and that “no one could have done more for a clearly dying parent than she did”.

“This defendant was distressed by how her father appeared,” Mr Price said.

“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.

“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.”

Davenport, who worked in the biomedical industry, was a single mother of two who described herself as a “functioning alcoholic”.

At a previous hearing, Davenport, of Washle Drive, near Banbury, pleaded guilty to manslaughter. She had denied murder.

Mary Prior KC, defending, said Davenport’s family had said they “all loved their father and grandfather, and that Lisa Davenport worshipped him”.

“And despite the fact she caused her father’s death, they all love her and support her and are here in court to support her.”

She said an immediate custodial sentence would punish not only Davenport but “others who have also lost so much, impacting her two children”.

“She acted in seconds to do something that prevented suffering for minutes, hours or days.”

Judge takes ‘merciful course’ due to ‘exceptional mitigating features’

Mr Justice Linden imposed a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered Davenport to undertake 12-month treatment programmes for her mental health and alcohol dependency.

He also ordered a six-month home curfew from 8pm and 8am.

The judge said that she and her father had a close, loving relationship and that in his final days he was in a “great deal of pain”.

“To your credit, you did not say you were acting on any wishes he had expressed,” he said.

“There was no evidence of premeditation and I also accept your sole motivation was to bring your father’s suffering to an end and acted because his death was close.”

“No one is permitted to take matters into their own hands,” he added.

“I recognise I have taken a merciful course. I have done so because of the mitigating features of your case, which in my judgment are exceptional.”