Training | 2010.01.05
Mother denies killing paralysed son
A devoted mother killed her 22-year-old son with a lethal dose of heroin "out of mercy" after a road accident left him in a "cabbage state", a court heard today.
Frances Inglis, 57, a trainee nurse from Dagenham, who was described as a pillar of the community, injected her son Thomas with street heroin in November 2008 as he lay in bed in a care home because she wanted him to be "at peace", the Old Bailey heard.
Inglis, who used to work with adults with learning difficulties, had already tried to end Thomas\'s life in September the previous year by giving him heroin, the jury was told. She was charged with attempted murder, but broke her bail conditions to gain access to him again and carry out the "meticulously planned" murder, jurors were told.
Thomas had suffered serious brain damage after falling out of an ambulance in July 2007 and hitting his head on the tarmac. Although medics insisted he was showing signs of improvement, Inglis believed he would never recover, and plotted to "put him out of his misery", the court heard. Inglis tried to kill Thomas, administering heroin, most likely through the tracheotomy tube that was keeping him alive, the court was told.
She was on bail for attempted murder when she killed Thomas by injecting him in the thigh and arm, again with heroin, the court heard. She gave a false name to gain access to his care home. , and tried to stop nursing staff entering his room after she had injected him by claiming to have HIV and threatening to infect them with blood or saliva.
Opening the case for the crown todaycrown, Miranda Moore, QC, said: "This is a tragic case ... But it is not a defence to murder or to attempted murder that a mother wants to put her son out of his misery, whether that misery was real or, as in this case, merely perceived. She thought he was suffering; that\'s why she did what she did. But that is not a defence to murder. You are not entitled to terminate somebody\'s life in this way."
The court heard that Inglis became a changed woman after Thomas\'s accident. Her neighbour, Sharon Robinson, said in evidence that Inglis was previously a "perfect lady, a lovely person".
"She was gentle and kind and always helpful, always ready to help those less fortunate than herself," said Robinson. She agreed that Inglis was a "wonderful mother" as she recalled her shock when Inglis came to her house and told her about Thomas\'s accident. "She said he was lying there in a cabbage state," she said, adding Inglis wanted her to find "something pure to finish her life and to end his life."
When Robinson said she couldn\'t help, Inglis became hysterical. "She couldn\'t see sense, She just wasn\'t Frankie. She was distraught," said Robinson.
Thomas\'s brother, Alex, is due to give evidence for the prosecution tomorrow.
He noticed a change in their mother after the accident, the court was told. Moore said: "Alex noted that whereas the rest of the family hoped and believed that Tom would make some sort of recovery, his mother was pessimistic."
The murder was a "meticulously planned operation", and that Inglis clearly expected to be caught and punished. After Thomas\'s death in November 2008, when police searched her house following her arrest, they found she had left detailed records of bills that needed paying and instructions on what the family dog, Max, was to be fed.
Inglis denies murder and attempted murder. The case continues.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/05/mother-denies-killing-paralysed-son
