Woman kills son with heroin overdose

London: A mother gave her brain-damaged son a fatal overdose of heroin after admitting she had tried to kill him before as an "act of mercy", a court heard Wednesday.

While on bail, "obsessive" Frances Inglis tricked her way to his bedside in a nursing home by pretending to be his aunt, a jury was told. Then she injected 22-year-old Thomas with "ten little parcels" of the drug, it was alleged.

When a nurse went to his room to give him his medication and saw her there, Inglis, 56, screamed: "Not now, I've got HIV and if you come in here I'll start spitting at you."

She then barricaded the door shut with an oxygen trolley, a jury was told.

Managers were alerted and a male member of staff managed to force his way into the room at the Gardens Neurological Nursing Home in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, and contained Inglis in a "bear hug".

She allegedly shouted, "Don't try to resuscitate him" and called the staff "stupid people who didn't care about her son when he was alive". When she realised he was dead, she collapsed into a chair.

Inglis, of Dagenham, Essex, denies murder and attempted murder. The case continues.