Dagenham mother on trial for murder said her son was 'in hell'

A MOTHER accused of murdering her severely disabled son said today she wanted him to go to heaven rather than 'have hell on earth'.

Frances Anne Inglis, 57, of Maxey Road, Dagenham, allegedly killed 22-year-old Thomas Inglis with a lethal injection of heroin as he lay in a coma 'to put him out of his misery'.

Giving evidence at the Old Bailey she sobbed uncontrollably as she told the jury: 'There are things worse than death.'

She described the moment police broke the news that he had jumped from the back of an ambulance in July 2007 and the 'horrendous' site of him in intensive care fighting for his life.

Inglis clutched a tissue throughout her time in the witness box and repeatedly sobbed or forced back tears to answer questions from her barrister Sasha Wass QC.

She said doctors had told her they would need to remove parts of Thomas's brain to keep him alive, although jurors have heard none of the organ was taken away during surgery.

'I know Tom, there is no way he would have wanted to live totally dependent,' she told the court.

'I felt he would rather go to heaven than have hell on earth. I know Tom would not want to live. He had lost his life. He had lost his life.

'If they were going to mutilate his brain, to me it was just awful.'

Medical staff broke the news that her son needed emergency surgery in a room at Queen's hospital, Romford, where she waited with Thomas's father Alex, eldest son Alex Jnr known as 'AJ' and youngest son Michael.

Inglis said she was against the operation taking place, but her former partner and eldest son thought it should go ahead

'They said "but he will die" and I said "there are things worse than death",' she told the court.

Thomas suffered catastrophic brain injury after falling out of an ambulance travelling at 30mph on July 7, 2007.

She said police officers who arrived at her home in Maxey Road, Dagenham, that day claimed her son had jumped from the ambulance, but Inglis told jurors she still did not believe this to be true.

'I thought and I still believe to this day that Tom would have been allowed to die had he not have come out of the ambulance fighting with a police officer,' she said.

'I believe they didn't want Tom to die because that would have been very bad for them.'

While in hospital Thomas was on a life support machine and needed surgery to allow him to breathe through his throat.

Inglis said she researched brain damage on the internet and contacted Headway, a charity which deals with victims of head injuries, to discover what chance he had of achieving a 'life with quality that he could enjoy'.

'If it had been a quality of life he enjoyed I would have been so happy. But if it was going to be a total horror story for him, I can't explain now how it was,' she sobbed.

'Everything I found out, every doctor I spoke to was confirming all my worst fears that Tom had lost his life but didn't die and would never be able to do anything himself.

'It would be like being buried alive and never being released. It felt like he had been tortured, kidnapped and tortured.

'It was so unbearably cruel, it was so cruel, so wrong, so wrong. To do that to somebody's brain, it was wrong. To see my son go through that it was too much to bear, too much to bear.'

It is alleged Inglis had earlier tried to kill her son in Queen's on September 4 2007 with a heroin overdose. He suffered a cardiac arrest but survived.

Thomas was taken to Northwick Park Hospital for rehabilitation on October 22, 2007, following the failed attempt.

He was then moved to The Gardens Neurological Nursing Home in Sawbridgeworth, Herts, in May 2008.

Inglis, who had been charged with attempted murder, made the second successful attempt to kill her son on November 21, 2008 with another heroin injection, jurors have heard.

She tricked her way into the nursing home, in breach of her bail conditions, by pretending to be Thomas's aunt.

Inglis denies murder and attempted murder.

The trial continues.