"THE victim was your husband. You are a very dangerous woman. There is but one sentence which I can impose."

These were the words of Judge Jim Spencer as he jailed poisoner Heather Mook, formerly of Heslington Road, York, to potentially a lifetime behind bars.

The serial con-woman laced her husband John's spaghetti bolognese with rat killer, fed her six-year-old child anti-depressants and stripped her mother-in-law of her life savings.

She was locked up indefinitely.

Outside York Crown Court, John Mook said he felt lucky to be alive, adding "I still think she needs help, serious help, and I hope she gets it."

Serpent in the heart of her family

SHE was the serpent in the heart of her family - today, poisoner Heather Mook is potentially behind bars for the rest of her life.

Judge Jim Spencer decided the woman who laced her husband John's spaghetti Bolognese with rat killer, fed her six-year-old child anti-depressants and stripped her mother-in-law of her life savings, was so dangerous she had to be locked up indefinitely.

"You are before the courts for offences committed over a period of time, offences committed with great callousness and cynicism for your own good, for your own enrichment and for your own benefit," he told her at York Crown Court.

"The victim was your husband, of course with whom, you pretended to be in a loving relationship so that he trusted you.

"You are a very dangerous woman.There is no mitigation.There is but one sentence which I can impose."

Outside court, John Mook said he felt lucky to be alive.

"It's at times like these you find out who your friends really are," he said, thanking all those who had stood by him during his lengthy ordeal.

"I still think she needs help, serious help, and I hope she gets it."

But Det Insp Nigel Costello, who led the police investigation, said prison was the right place for Heather Mook. John Mook fell in love with his wife, he said, and love can be blind.

"As the investigation progressed, it was apparent that she had meticulously planned her actions and executed them, without feeling for those who showed her trust, love and affection," he said.

Last December, a jury convicted Mook, 58, formerly of Heslington Road, York, of two charges of poisoning her husband with the anti-depressant amitryptaline, with intent to endanger his life and one of giving him rat poison with intent to harm him.

She had previously admitted two more charges of giving him the anti-depressant with intent to injure him and 19 fraud offences.

The judge said she must serve a total of five years before she can apply for parole, but warned she will only be released then if the Parole Board decide she is no longer a danger.

Matthew Bean, prosecuting, said that she had given the same anti-depressant to her then six-year-old daughter by a previous marriage in 1981.

She poisoned Mr Mook to prevent him unravelling the web of deceit she wove as she fleeced his mother Freda of her £43,000 life savings.

Gary Burrell, QC for Heather Mook, said she was a troubled person with "fairly significant and problematical personality difficulties".

She had been receiving treatment since her arrest and appeared to have shown genuine remorse.

Deceived by forgery, lies and manipulation

John Mook had no idea that the new woman in his life had a string of previous convictions for preying on those closest to her.

Heather Mook had already had three husbands and was to use all her practised techniques to hurt him and his family - including lies, poison, financial forgeries and manipulation.

And, just as she had more than ten years earlier in Middlethorpe, she was to con people with tales she had terminal cancer. They were untrue.

The couple married in 1997, shortly after she completed her latest jail sentence - three years - for her first cancer lies.

In 2003, Mr Mook's mother Freda sold her home for £35,000 which she invested in five funds, and moved in with her son and his wife. She also had £8,000 savings in a Yorkshire Bank account.

The daughter-in-law targeted the bank account first and in three months, starting in December 2003, she drained it completely.

Then she moved in on the investments. She forged letters claiming to be from her mother-in-law and had the funds sold and the proceeds put in Freda Mook's bank account by November, 2004. Then she emptied it by - Withdrawing more than £17,000 through hole- in-the-wall machines Writing cheques to just under £14,000 on her mother-in-law's chequebook Using the account's debit card to make purchases of over £1,000.

Transferring money into a joint account in her and her husband's name which he knew nothing about.

By February 15, 2005, the money had all gone. Police have been unable to track where she spent most of the money, though she did have a breast reduction at one stage.

In December 2005, the older Mrs Mook moved into a private nursing home.

"Mr Mook trusted his wife to make arrangements to pay the fees. She made no payments to the nursing home," Matthew Bean, prosecuting, told York Crown Court.

By April 2006, the nursing home was owed £10,000 and in early May 2006, it contacted Mr Mook directly.

"As a result, the defendant began to take increasingly desperate steps in order to hide the effect of her stealing all her mother-in-law's savings," said Mr Bean She forged letters from the company that had invested the money, claiming that the funds still held £43,000. But Mr Mook was still suspicious and she started poisoning him so that he felt lethargic and disinclined to investigate further.

In January, 2007, the nursing home, by now owed £21,000, asked the older Mrs Mook to leave and she moved to a state-run nursing home with a lower level of accommodation.

But Mr Mook was getting too close to the truth, and his wife gave him so many anti-depressants, he had to be hospitalised. She visited him in the hospital ward and poisoned him again.

But his daughters saw her and called in the police.

Police to get commendations

Seven police officers and staff are to get a judge's commendation for their work in putting Heather Mook behind bars. They are: Det Insp Nigel Costello, who led the police investigation and his deputy Det Sgt Alan Rowan, Det Sgt Steve Smith, Det Cons John Lintott, Ben Bowles and Martin Hinchcliffe, Sgt Rebecca Dyer and civilian financial investigator Mike Sankey.