Teacher secretly pays Swiss clinic £10k to kill himself by injection

A 47-year-old schoolteacher with no identified sickness paid greater than £10,000 to die at a Swiss suicide clinic – which then stored his dying a secret from his household.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that chemistry trainer Alastair Hamilton advised his dad and mom he was visiting a pal in Paris when as an alternative he was flying to Basel in Switzerland to finish his life by deadly injection.

His distraught mom Judith Hamilton, 81, final evening warned that different households ought to pay attention to the ‘cowboy clinic’ known as Pegasos which, not like the better-known Dignitas clinic, doesn’t require folks to be terminally unwell or to be accompanied by somebody once they go there to die.

Shockingly, it took the persistence of Mr Hamilton’s devastated household, the Metropolitan Police, the Foreign Office and Interpol to find what had occurred to Alastair after he vanished final summer time.

In emails to Alastair’s household, a pissed off Met Police sergeant criticised Pegasos’s ‘lack of compassion and lack of transparency’ as ‘utterly unacceptable’.

The disturbing case could be revealed amid renewed stress from cross-party MPs for UK regulation to be modified to permit assisted suicide in Britain.

Labour chief Sir Keir Starmer just lately known as for MPs to be given a vote on the problem, and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman stated it was ‘a problem of conscience for particular person parliamentarians’ to resolve on.

An investigation by this newspaper right now reveals how Alastair’s grieving household:

• Have nonetheless not acquired goodbye letters that the clinic stated he had left for them – or his wristwatch, garments and different private results;
• Learned he had taken his life on the clinic solely after police examined his checking account statements and located that he had transferred 1000’s of kilos to Pegasos;
• Only acquired his ashes within the put up two months after he died. Pegasos had initially refused to talk to them about his stays, saying it was ‘in opposition to our lawyer’s suggestions’.

Alastair’s household stated they have been prompted to speak about their devastating expertise amid discussions round assisted dying within the UK, the place it’s presently unlawful to assist somebody kill themself.

Alastair’s brother Toby, 52, stated: ‘I’m not in opposition to assisted dying however you may’t let somebody who isn’t terminally unwell flip up and do that on their very own, utterly alone, after which utterly disregard the household or subsequent of kin. It’s a cowboy operation. These individuals are cowboys.’

Mrs Hamilton added: ‘Why Pegasos acted the way in which they did and agreed to assist Alastair do that, I do not assume I’ll ever perceive.

‘We’re all nonetheless heartbroken and nonetheless have so many questions, however I’m unsure we’ll ever get all of the solutions.’

Under Swiss regulation, since 1942, individuals are allowed to assist others to die so long as their motives will not be egocentric, comparable to for monetary achieve. 

The regulation states that the individual wishing to die have to be of sound thoughts, however they don’t have to be terminally unwell or have any medical situations. The nation’s assisted suicide clinics are non-profit organisations.

Its most well-known clinic, Dignitas – the place a minimum of 540 Britons have died up to now 20 years – has strict guidelines that its shoppers have to be terminally unwell, struggling excessive ache or dwelling with an ‘unendurable incapacity’.

But Pegasos, run by activist Ruedi Habegger, says its customers don’t have to be unwell to kill themselves. Its web site says it can approve somebody’s dying request ‘in as little as a number of weeks’ so long as they’re aged over 18.

Alastair’s household stated he had been battling with low moods since 2022, when he started shedding pounds and feeling more and more drained.

He had given up working full-time and moved again into his dad and mom’ residence in Hampton, south-west London, however medical doctors couldn’t work out what was incorrect with him.

His frightened household paid for a number of personal well being checks, together with assessments for most cancers and HIV, to know Alastair’s weight reduction. But medical doctors have been nonetheless unable to diagnose him with any situation.

Toby, who owns a lettings company, stated: ‘Alastair began speaking about suicide like he was speaking about going for a pint down the pub. 

‘I begged him to not say the ‘S phrase’ to our mum and stated we’d throw cash on the downside, no matter he wanted, till we figured it out.’

On August 10, Alastair’s father Edward, 85, drove him to Gatwick Airport. He had no cause to suspect his son was not travelling to satisfy a pal in France.

Before he left for the final time, Mrs Hamilton stated her son ‘put his arms round me and gave me a giant kiss, and simply stated, ‘Always keep in mind Mum that I like you very a lot, I all the time have, I all the time will, it doesn’t matter what’.

‘I used to be so happy to assume he was selecting up his life and getting some enthusiasm, and he was all the time very affectionate and loving in direction of me, so it did not register that these phrases have been his ultimate goodbye.’

His household grew to become involved when Alastair stopped responding to their calls, texts and voicemails over the following week.

Mrs Hamilton phoned the police to report him as a lacking individual. Scotland Yard quickly established that Alastair had actually caught a flight to Switzerland.

An evaluation of his financial institution transactions then revealed 4 funds totalling £10,310 to the Pegasos Swiss Association, a small clinic run from an workplace in central Basel.

Officers contacted Pegasos however, apart from confirming Alastair had died there, the clinic failed to supply police with the date of his dying or another info. 

As the times dragged on, Toby persistently emailed the clinic, saying: ‘I urge and beg you to please reply to my e-mail as quickly as attainable.

‘Can you think about what that is doing to our household in an extremely traumatic time?’

However, the clinic didn’t reply for one more week till it despatched a chilly e-mail requested Toby to supply scans of his passport and to signal an affidavit to be able to obtain details about his brother.

Despite Toby doing this instantly, one other week handed by earlier than they lastly confirmed Alastair had died on August 14.

Last evening, Toby stated: ‘If you had the slightest little bit of empathy, and you’re the slightest little bit of a good human being, you’d decide up the cellphone and really discuss to the grieving household.’ 

Mrs Hamilton added: ‘I might have remortgaged the home and had his physique flown residence if I had recognized what occurred, however we by no means received that probability.’

Only in October – two months after Alastair died – did the household obtain his ashes within the put up.

They by no means acquired any goodbye letters, regardless of Pegasos claiming Alastair had left some for them.

They have additionally by no means acquired his wristwatch, garments or any of his belongings. Toby stated: ‘We ultimately discovered Alastair’s utility to Pegasos which was actually similar to a two-page protecting letter for a job utility.

‘It does not look like they do any of the checks that Dignitas do. They’re not liaising with medical doctors for medical information or psychotherapists to ensure an individual is unwell.’

Childline founder Dame Esther Rantzen revealed that she had joined the Dignitas clinic after her prognosis of stage 4 lung most cancers, and urged ‘lawmakers to meet up with the general public’.

Last evening, after listening to about Alastair Hamilton’s case, Dame Esther advised The Mail on Sunday: ‘Obviously, any new regulation within the UK will want precautions inbuilt.

‘We can be taught from different nations the place such legal guidelines are already in place as to what’s the most sensible and humane means of legalising assisted dying with out making folks weak.’

Pegasos didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark.