WHEN the trial of Jenny Kenyon began at Worcester Crown Court on July 2, 1974, national crime reporters packed the press benches for what had been flagged up as “one of Britain’s most sinister killings.” The opening address by silver tongued prosecuting counsel Stephen Brown QC, an old boy of Malvern College and later an Appeal Court judge, did not disappoint.

“This is a horrifying case of cruel and calculated murder,” he told the jury. He then went on to describe “the fortnight of horrible suffering” Mrs Kenyon’s husband Keith endured before he died in London’s Hammersmith Hospital on December 1, 1973. “The truth in this case is indeed stranger than fiction,” said Mr Brown. 

Mr Kenyon had been admitted to Worcester Royal Infirmary in Castle Street the previous November 18 after being taken ill at his home in Ullswater Close, Warndon. Initially appendicitis was suspected, but his condition worsened and on November 22 he was transferred across the city to Ronkswood Hospital. Three days later Keith Kenyon collapsed and was never to regain consciousness.

At Ronkswood doctors raised the possibility of paraquat poisoning and on November 28 the unconscious Mr Kenyon was rushed to Hammersmith Hospital, which specialised in poison cases. But it was too late. Within three days of arriving there he was dead. Before the court were Jennifer Ann Kenyon, aged 21, of Ullswater Close and David Henry Roberts, aged 39, of Hollymount Road, Worcester. Both denied charges of murdering Mr Kenyon. The prosecution maintained he had died through poison acquired by Roberts and administered by Jenny Kenyon.

The Kenyons  married at Worcester Register Office in January 1970 after a whirlwind romance. They had only known each other for two months. Jennifer Riley had come up from South Wales to live with her grandmother in Worcester, already, at the age of 17, the owner of a criminal record for theft. Keith Kenyon, on the other hand, was a former pupil of Samuel Southall Secondary School and among the top apprentices of the year at the Midlands Electricity Board.

The marriage went wrong virtually from the start: within two weeks, Jenny Kenyon was later to tell police. Neighbours spoke of frequent arguments and Jenny storming out of their council flat. They said the trouble seemed to be Jenny was always wanting to go out, while Keith preferred to stay at home.

Whatever the truth, Jenny Kenyon embarked on a string of affairs and became pregnant for the second time (the first had been as a teenager before she met Keith) and while in hospital having the baby, stole £18 from a fellow patient. For which she was put on probation. But despite her behaviour, it was not until her husband, described by his employers as “quiet, but someone for whom nothing was too much trouble”, began seeing another woman that things turned fatal.

Jenny Kenyon told the court Keith would come home from dances with love bites on his neck and this made her jealous enough to want him dead. “It was the last straw,” she claimed. She obtained a quart bottle of weed killer paraquat, for which there was then no known antidote, under the brand name, Gramoxone, through one of her lovers David Roberts, a depot manager of agricultural suppliers Midland Shires Farmers in Worcester.

Kenyon admitted putting three teaspoons of the poison in her husband’s morning tea, but claimed it was only to frighten him. “I wanted it to make him ill, but I did not mean it to kill him,” she said. “I only wanted to teach him a lesson.”

Within days, Keith Kenyon became unwell and was admitted to Worcester Royal Infirmary. His throat was very sore and ulcerated and stomach pains set in. His tongue became swollen and grey and kidney and lung damage followed.  Appendicitis, enteritis and viral pneumonia were all considered before blood tests suggested poisoning.  A forensic report revealed large quantities of paraquat had been ingested.

Despite Jenny Kenyon’s plea that she did not intend to kill her husband, Stephen Brown told the jury: “Keith Kenyon was simply not intended to live. This was a deliberate, calculated murder. While Mr Kenyon was in hospital, Mrs Kenyon never for one moment told anyone that she had given poison, let alone one particular type of poison.  A plot was formed and it was carried through. It  was murder, cruel, calculated murder.”

Roberts, who gave evidence from the dock rather than the witness box, claimed he did not know his co-defendant had the poison. “If I had I would have taken it off her,” he said. “Keith Kenyon was a big friend of mine.”

After six hours deliberation, the jury unanimously convicted Jenny Kenyon of murder and Mr Justice Ashworth sent her to prison for life. She had maintained what was described as “ice cool nonchalance” throughout the nine day trial and even thanked the judge as he passed sentence.

David Roberts collapsed in the dock as the jury also announced a unanimous verdict in his case – not guilty. At which there was cheering and clapping from a packed public gallery. He praised his wife and family for standing by him, but there was to be no happy ever after. Twelve years later he died quietly at home aged just 51.