A HUSBAND’S hatred for his estranged wife led him to try to poison her and attempt to set fire to her home while their children were asleep, a court heard.

Hardev Singh bought his wife Sonia Boswell a Big Mac and put rat poison in it. When she bit into it, she felt pellets in her mouth.

On another occasion, she was asleep downstairs when she was awoken by the sound of petrol being poured through her letterbox.

A spent match was recovered from the doormat by police, Maidstone Crown Court was told.

Phillip Bennetts, prosecuting, said the couple started a relationship in 1991 and had five children.

But by January last year it had deteriorated and Ms Boswell asked him to leave their home in Grove Road, Maidstone.

Singh, known as Tony, harassed her and in February that year she obtained a court order banning him from going within 100 metres of the house.

In June last year, he took the children out for the day and they went to a McDonald’s restaurant.

Mr Bennetts said Singh, 37, asked Ms Boswell if she wanted anything to eat.

She said no, but he knew one of her favourite food items was a Big Mac,” said the prosecutor.

Singh was seen on CCTV going to his car and leaning in the window. It was then that he was thought to have put the rat poison in the burger.

“The effect on her you can imagine,” Mr Bennetts told the jury. “She bit into it and it tasted bitter.”

Her mother Angela took the burger back to McDonald’s and also spoke to Trading Standards. Police seized it and a scientist found it contained the poison.

Mr Bennetts said administering a large amount of the poison would be extremely dangerous.

Singh, of Maidstone Road, Rochester, denied administering poison, attempted arson with intent to endanger life, an alternative charge of attempted arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered, possessing articles with intent to destroy or damage property and two charges of intimidation.

He was convicted only of administering the poison and attempted arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered. Judge Timothy Nash called for a psychiatric report and adjourned sentence to Canterbury Crown Court on December 14.

Sonia Boswell, from Grove Road, Mangravet, Maidstone, has found the courage to speak out about her ordeal but says she is still haunted by her fear of Singh.

“He’s in my mind all the time,” said Ms Boswell. “It’s the children who kept me alive. If I didn’t have them I don’t know what would have happened.”

SONIA BOSWELL'S FULL STORY APPEARS IN THE MAIDSTONE EDITION OF THIS WEEK'S KENT MESSENGER