A WOMAN who watched her frail, reclusive husband die of a drugs overdose told police his death was an ''unassisted suicide'', a court heard yesterday.

Jill Anderson, 49, who denies manslaughter, told police that her husband, Paul, 43, had made his own decision to take his life.

Mr Anderson, who was suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome, ME, was weak, vulnerable and in constant pain when he took an overdose of morphine at their home at Westowe Cottage, Galphay, near Ripon, North Yorkshire, on July 17, 2003, and died the next day.

His widow told police: "My main thought was that he would wake up and we would just carry on. But he didn't. It's as simple as that. It was an unassisted suicide. It was his own decision."

Leeds Crown Court heard her husband had made two previous suicide attempts.

During cross-examination by Paul Worsley, defending, Detective Constable John Bosomworth, of North Yorkshire Police, told the jury that Mrs Anderson was not charged until more than 13 months after her husband's death.

Mr Worsley told the jury Mrs Anderson would not be giving evidence.

Her GP, Dr Graham Summers told the court she had been suffering from a mild depressive illness during the last month, but that she was physically capable of giving evidence.

Earlier, the court heard that Mrs Anderson, who previously worked as a production co-ordinator for Yorkshire Television and London Weekend Television in the late 1980s and 1990s, could have saved her husband's life by dialling 999.

Instead, she sat with him as he went into a "deep sleep".

In his closing speech, David Perry, prosecuting, told the jury that Mrs Anderson had deprived them of the opportunity to hear her evidence first hand.

The trial continues.