A TOP hospital scientist has been found guilty of murdering his wife by knocking her out with an anaesthetic and then smothering her with a cushion.

Andrew Booth denied murdering wife Lorraine but last night a jury found him guilty by a majority verdict of 11 to one.

Booth, 44, of Tankersley Lane, Hoyland Common, closed his eyes and showed no emotion as the verdict was read out.

He looked to the floor as judge Justice Jack Beatson said Lorraine's death was a tragedy.

The court had heard how Booth knocked out Lorraine with a rag doused in an anaesthetic which he had taken from the Doncaster Royal Infirmary where he was head of biomedical science.

When that failed to kill her, he smothered her with a cushion and, when he realised she was dead, tried to make it look like she had passed out drunk and suffocated herself by turning her on to her front.

Booth was arrested a week after the death and first told police he had discovered an ‘inebriated’ Lorraine, 50, face down on the sofa after she stayed the night at the family home on July 11.

Her death was not treated as suspicious until Lorraine’s family raised concerns and a second post mortem found she had died from suffocation. Traces of the anaesthetic, Enflurane, were in her blood and urine.

A Home Office pathologist found bruises on her back and head which suggested Booth had knelt on her while pushing her face down on the sofa. Lorraine's blood and saliva were found on the cushion.

Booth had been spiking Lorraine's drinks with ethanol in a bid to make her appear alcoholic and he told colleagues she did not have long to live because of her drinking.

However, the post mortem found no signs of liver damage.

After Lorraine died he told workmates he'd been having dreams that he had done it but they put this down to shock and the medication he was taking.

Jeremy Richardson, prosecuting, said Booth killed Lorraine to avoid paying £60,000 in a divorce settlement. At a meal to celebrate her 50th birthday, less than a fortnight before she died, Lorraine had told family, "that part of my life is over", even though Booth insisted in court they were trying to rebuild their relationship.

Mr Richardson read a statement from Lorraine's father Bruce Wyatt, 85, of Pilley Green, Tankersley. It said: "Lorraine's death and the circumstances surrounding it have left us all with a situation where there are no winners.

"We are all losers and each of us will deal with the loss in our own way."

Lorraine's family vehemently denied she was alcoholic. Brother Charlie Wyatt, 59, Springfield Road, Hoyland Common, said she was a devoted mum of two even though she had separated from Booth and left the family home to live in a flat above the Hare and Hounds pub where she worked.

He said: "For someone who is made out to be alcoholic the house was amazingly spotless.

"Every single day after Lorraine had gone to live at the Hare and Hounds she would go around to the house and get the kids up, washed and dressed and ready for school.

"When everyone had gone she went round and did all the pots and pans and did the washing before she started work."

It was Charlie who raised suspicions with police because Booth had told different family members conflicting versions of what happened. Lorraine had told stepsister Katherine Sharp, who lived four doors away, that she thought Booth had been spiking her drinks.

DS Paul Dickinson led the investigation and was delighted with the verdict. He said: "I think it is important to acknowledge the role of her family and friends to alerting the police. If it was not for them this case may have taken a different route."

Booth will be sentenced this morning and Justice Beatson said: "There is only one sentence and that is life imprisonment." He has been told to expect a 15-year minimum sentence.