A woman has spoken for the first time after her friend poisoned her by tying up her coffee with a lethal drug cocktail because she wouldn’t buy him a video game.
Denise Smith, 66, ended up being rushed to the hospital after getting sick, prompting Christopher Connolly, who had moved in with her, to confess to the police that he had been poisoning her.
Connolly was jailed for four years in April after pleading guilty to intentionally attempting to cause serious bodily injury at the Maidstone Crown Court.
The court heard that he had become vindictive after Smith refused to buy him a PlayStation game he wanted for his 28th birthday in December 2018.
Connolly, now 29, began spreading the sweetener for his coffee with a mixture of crushed pain relievers, antidepressants, and pills for anxiety and sleep disorders.
Smith, of Chatham, Kent, began to experience dizziness, confusion and extreme fatigue and eventually became so ill that she was rushed to Medway Hospital in Kent, where she spent two days recovering but still suffers from memory loss and insomnia.
Speaking about her ordeal the first time, Smith, a charity shop worker, said: “Christopher took advantage of me in the worst possible way. He was a lost young man, all I tried to do was help him.
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“He was bitter because he had not been able to get him the PlayStation game he was asking for. His revenge was to drug my coffee, knowing very well like most of my colleagues, I have at least 10 cups a day.
“I was in a permanent state of stunned confusion during the weeks he drugged me, getting worse and worse until I was in bed.
“He kept saying that I shouldn’t worry because he was there to take care of me. But it could have killed me.
“My memory is damaged for life, I have insomnia and terrible memories. It makes me sick to think about what she did to me. He was supposed to be my best friend.
The couple first crossed paths after becoming neighbors in Chatham in 2014.
The unemployed Connolly offered to care for Smith’s dog while she was at work and the couple became friends, with Smith regularly cooking meals for him.
The 66-year-old woman said she felt it was a reassuring influence on her life, but everything changed when she was unable to purchase the Red Dead Redempton PlayStation game for her 28th birthday on December 21, 2018.
“Christopher sulked for weeks after I told him he couldn’t afford the game,” he said. “I thought it was ridiculous, but since he wasn’t on good terms with his family, I felt a little sorry for him, knowing that he probably wouldn’t get much. “I gave him the benefit of the doubt about it.
“I also invited him to mine for Christmas that year. I stocked the fridge with all of our favorite foods and even let her stay in my apartment for a few days. ”
On December 21, 2018, Connolly began drinking Smith’s coffee with a mixture of crushed pain relievers, antidepressants, and pills for anxiety and sleep disorders, and completed it with a “festive” Baileys when he questioned the taste and saw it. gradually weaken and become confused.
Smith began to feel groggy and experience strange symptoms, and in early January she was unable to get out of bed, but Connolly offered to help her by walking her dog and taking care of her.
On January 3, 2019, Connolly called the police from a local public phone and told the operator that he believed he had “killed” his friend.
He was arrested and officers went to Smith’s house where they had to wake her up from a “sleepy” state.
She was admitted to the hospital, where a urine sample was found to contain up to 11 medications, eight of which had not been prescribed.
Doctors said the cocktail had put her at risk of “serious adverse effects and death.”
Connolly, who was later heard by the court to be suffering from emotionally unstable personality disorder and autism, admitted to intentionally trying to cause serious bodily harm and was imprisoned for four years.
But Smith said he did not believe he had been sentenced long enough, adding: “I am still suffering from the ill effects of the drugs he was giving me.
“I really don’t think I received a long enough sentence, it will be out before you know it.
“It is absolutely terrifying what could have happened. He could have come back and finished me.
