Edward Downes "serious health problems" suffered by the couple. A statement issued by the couple's children said that while Downes could have gone on living with his deafness and blindness, he did not want to do so after his wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer. In March 2010, Keir Starmer (director of public prosecutions) stated that Caractacus Downes would not be prosecuted for his involvement with his parents' assisted suicide because it was not in the public interest. Edward Downes Sir Edward Thomas ("Ted") Downes, CBE (17 June 1924 – 10 July 2009) was an English conductor, specialising in opera. He was
Sir Edward Gooch, 6th Baronet Sir Edward Gooch, 6th Baronet Sir Edward Sherlock Gooch, 6th Baronet of Benacre Hall (6 June 1802 – 9 November 1856) was a British Conservative politician. Born in 1802, Gooch was the son of Sir Thomas Gooch, 5th Baronet and Marianne née Whittaker. He first married Louisa Anna Maria Prescott, daughter of Sir George Beeston Prescott, 2nd Baronet, in 1828, and they had at least two children: Florence Jane Charlotte Giva Gooch (died 1918) and a second, unknown daughter. After Louisa's death in 1837, he remarried to Harriet Hope-Vere, daughter of James Joseph Hope-Vere and Lady Elizabeth Hay in 1839.