Mother 'told starving son to death was legal'

Frances Inglis, 57, is alleged to have given 22-year-old son Thomas a lethal dose of heroin in a bid to end his suffering.

Yesterday her older son Alex told an Old Bailey jury how his brother's condition after suffering serious head injuries had driven his mother almost "insane".

He had been left helpless and unable to speak and she believed he was being "tortured" by constant pain, the court heard.

Mr Inglis said he and his father had initially been more hopeful than his mother about the chances of recovery.

But he later became more sceptical about suggestions by a brain surgeon that he could one day recover to the extent that he could run his own business.

Eventually they began to discuss the "probability" that his life should be ended by obtaining a court order to allow his feeding to be withdrawn, Mr Inglis told the jury.

"It was the only legal way it could happen, for Tom to die of hunger," he said.

Sasha Wass QC, defending, asked Mr Inglis whether his mother had been left "devastated" by the suggestion.

Mr Inglis said: "It is horrific. I told her it is the only way that it could happen, for someone to die of thirst. It is sick."

He added that he had not directly asked her if she would consent but said he "seriously doubted" that she would.

Inglis is alleged to have killed her son as he lay in a nursing home in November 2008 while on bail for trying to kill him before.

She had already tried to end his life by giving him heroin in September the year before, jurors heard.

The defendant, of Dagenham, east London, denies murder and attempted murder. The trial was adjourned until today.