In 2024, police in Droitwich, Worcestershire, receive a 999 call from an 81-year-old man called Ivan Potter asking for an ambulance. His 80-year-old wife, Maureen, has died and both he and his son, Gavin, have taken an overdose.
Potter adds, who has learning and physical disabilities, adds: “I’ve got a cerebral palsy lad – we’ve taken overdoses. Sorry, but that’s how we are. We want to be with her.”
This unobtrusive, fly on the wall documentary follows a team of murder detectives as they seek to get to the bottom of this sad, difficult case.
Police at first suspect a murder suicide. However, it transpires that Maureen Potter had lung cancer and had a natural death. The focus of the investigation now becomes whether Ivan Potter committed attempted murder against his son. Both by now are recovering in hospital.
This becomes an extraordinarily complex investigation, centring on the son’s capacity to understand concepts such as death and suicide, and whether he could have consented to take actions that would lead to his own death.
As one detective succinctly puts it: “There are cases that sit in both the legal world and the moral world, and drawing the line between these is sometimes very difficult.”
In another sense, the case is quite simple. No one currently has a legal right to assist another person to die so, to administer drugs to help anyone to die, in any circumstances, is murder or attempted murder.
The police’s job is to identify whether this happened. It is the job of the courts to sort out the moral complexity of it all.
A clinical psychologist’s assessment states that while Gavin can consent to basic things such as where to go and what to eat and drink, concepts such as death and illness are too abstract for him to make any sort of informed decision.
Investigations reveal a close couple who loved their son. They had been in contact only sporadically with adult social services since 2012, when the son would have been 33.
Respite was once offered but, after one day, was not accepted further. In Ivan Potter’s words: “They took him out for one day and… he came home and his neck was all sunburnt. And I don’t think they liked him.”
She wanted us all to be together. I weren’t going to leave him on his own with nobody
A picture emerges of a family mistrustful of social services support but increasingly at
their wits’ end, and of a local authority regularly closing their case and withdrawing.
On his solicitor’s advice and, seemingly reluctantly, Ivan adopts a “no comment” approach in
police interviews.
However, bodycam footage from his time in hospital reveals him openly acknowledging what happened: “She wanted us all to be together. Didn’t want him to be left behind. I weren’t going to leave him on his own with nobody.”
The visibly distressed interviewing officer charges him with attempted murder. “I’ll take what’s coming to me,” is the reply.
In court, Ivan pleads guilty and receives a two-year suspended sentence which means, having spent six months in custody, he is released.
Whose decision?
The judge tells him: “You took the decision to kill yourself and your son. This was not your decision to take. You had no right to decide for him whether he should live or not.”
However, he takes into account that the accused was mentally unwell at the time, as a result of his wife’s death and the strain of caring for two people. The judge states that he was not motivated by malice but “misguided love”.
Ivan Potter is now living at home. His son, fully recovered, is in the care of social services. His father visits him under supervision.
No easy answers are given to this morally complex series of events, but the questions are beautifully laid out for consideration by this superb, understated piece of documentary film making.
If you are affected by this story and need to talk, the Samaritans operates a free 24/7 helpline on 116 123. You can also email jo@samaritans.org or visit its website.
