Suicide Antidepressants 05/11/2004 England Couple Make Bizarre Suicide Pact
 
 Summary:<br><br><!--StartFragment -->Paragraph 3 reads: &quot;<strong>The couple, who moved to the city from the Wirral this year, are understood to have overdosed on anti-depressants before swimming into the sea from the resort of Los Cristianos.&quot;<br /><br /></strong><a href="http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100localnews/tm_objectid=14839343&amp;method=full&amp;siteid=50002&amp;headline=hols-pair-s-death-pact-name_page.html">http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100localnews/tm_objectid=14839343&amp;method=full&amp;siteid=50002&amp;headline=hols-pair-s-death-pact-name_page.html<br /><br /><br /></a><strong>Hols pair&#39;s death pact</strong> <br /><br />Nov 5 2004<br /><br />By Mark Cowan, Evening Mail<br />&nbsp;<br /><br />Police were today continuing to probe the death of a Birmingham man who died in Tenerife after he and his wife made a bizarre suicide pact.<br /><br />William and Wendy Ainscow are believed to have made the pact as their shopaholic daughter&#39;s debts mounted.<br /><br />The couple, who moved to the city from the Wirral this year, are understood to have overdosed on anti-depressants before swimming into the sea from the resort of Los Cristianos.<br /><br />The Evening Mail revealed the tragedy in its late edition yesterday.<br /><br />It was the second time the couple had attempted to kill themselves because of the stress and spiralling cost of looking after 32-year-old daughter Lisa, who has Asperger&#39;s Syndrome - a form of autism that can cause obsessive behaviour.<br /><br />The Foreign Office confirmed that 74-year-old Mr Ainscow, a retired oceanographer for the Ministry of Defence, died on Tuesday after being pulled from the sea by a passer-by.<br /><br />His wife, a 65-year-old retired supply teacher and former postmistress, was described as &quot;barely alive&quot; when she was pulled from the water, but was today in a stable condition in a psychiatric ward in Santa Cruz, the island&#39;s capital.<br /><br />Ms Ainscow demanded designer clothes and expensive meals from her parents.<br /><br />Her obsessions include spending money, constantly washing, and writing to public figures such as Prince Charles and Tony Blair.<br /><br />She had almost 2,000 pairs of shoes and a collection of cuddly toys which filled a whole room.<br /><br />Mr Ainscow was jailed in January 2003 for 15 months after he admitted racking up debts of ?50,000 to fund his daughter&#39;s obsessions. The Court of Appeal quashed the sentence after three months because of the exceptional circumstances,<br /><br />Ms Ainscow was sent to hospital under Section 3 of the Mental Heath Act, but was unexpectedly discharged after a few months and returned to her parents&#39; former home in the Wirral, where she refused to attend clinics.<br /><br />Mr and Mrs Ainscow moved to Centenary Plaza, in Birmingham city centre, in an attempt to leave their old life behind.<br /><br />A Foreign Office spokesman said consular staff had visited Mrs Ainscow in hospital and British police were helping Spanish officers with their investigation.<br /><br />David Ward, British Consul in Tenerife, said: &quot;We don&#39;t know at the moment what has caused this couple to reach the horrific decision to travel to Tenerife to do what they appear to have done.<br />&nbsp; 
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