London: A judge told a devoted mother "you cannot take the law into your hands" as he jailed her for life on Wednesday for giving her brain-damaged son a lethal heroin overdose.

Frances Inglis, 57, injected Thomas, 22, with the class A drug because she wanted to free him from a "living hell" of permanent disability, disfigurement and round-the-clock care.

But on Wednesday she was convicted of murder with Judge Brian Barker telling her: "You cannot take away life, however compelling you think the reason."

He imposed a minimum jail term of nine years — which he is allowed to do under sentencing guidelines because of the mercy killing nature of the case.

Parole

Inglis has already served 423 days on remand which will be deducted from her sentence — meaning she could be eligible for parole in seven and a half years.

Last night Thomas's father, brothers, girlfriend and other relatives said in state-ment they were standing by Inglis 100 per cent.

They called for a change in the law to allow the lives of the disabled to be ended as they do not regard what she did as murder but a "loving and courageous act".

A jury found trainee nurse Inglis guilty of murdering Thomas and of trying to murder him 14 months earlier after an emotion-charged two-week trial at the Old Bailey.

Weeping members of Inglis's family, watching from the public gallery, shouted "shame on you" at the jury when they delivered their verdicts after deliberating for six hours, 21 minutes.

Inglis herself showed no emotion. Thomas's father Alex Inglis, 58, a lorry driver, also in the public gallery, hung his head.

The couple separated long before Thomas was brain damaged, but their relationship remained amicable for the sake of their three sons.

Thomas was left in a deep coma aged 21 after hitting his head on the road when he plunged from a moving ambulance. It had been taking him to be checked over at hospital after he suffered a cut lip in a fracas in his home area of Dagenham, East London, in the early hours of July 7, 2007.

Thomas had life-saving surgery, during which part of his skull was removed to relieve pressure on his bruised brain. He also had a tracheotomy — a procedure to insert a tube through his neck into his windpipe — so he could breathe.

He was fed via a tube into his stomach and was unable to speak.