A MOTHER accused of murdering her severely disabled son had been researching euthanasia on the internet before the first attempted murder, the Old Bailey heard. Frances Anne Inglis, 57, of Maxey Road, Dagenham, allegedly killed 22 year-old Thomas Inglis

A MOTHER accused of murdering her severely disabled son had been researching euthanasia on the internet before the first attempted murder, the Old Bailey heard.

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'.

She was on bail for attempted murder at the time following a failed attempt a year earlier, jurors have heard.

Her second son, Alexander Inglis, told the court that his mother was obsessed with Thomas' welfare.

He said: "She believed that Thomas was in constant pain 24 hours a day.

"She said that Thomas shouldn't be resuscitated, that he should die naturally, they shouldn't be messing around with his brain to keep him alive.

"She was constantly frantic and crying, I would say she almost seemed to be insane."

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

Jurors heard his family was told he would die without emergency surgery and agreed to the operation.

Alexander Inglis said that brain surgeon Ragu Vinlacheruvu told them it was possible Thomas would recover enough to be able to run his own business in a few years.

He said: "I believed in the possibility he would recover to the state of being able to communicate, walking, talking.

"I wanted to believe it and I did trust him but the sort of damage that he had he couldn't have been back to the same as me or you."

It is claimed Frances Inglis made the first attempt to end Thomas' life on September 4, 2007 at Queen's Hospital in Romford, Essex.

Alexander Inglis said he and his father suspected she was going to 'try and do something.'

He told the court: "It wasn't definite, we just suspected it could be a possibility.

"Her wish was that Thomas was dead and at peace."

He added: "She could never relax or stop or go to sleep, in her words he was being tortured, that's what she believed."

Frances Inglis also believed that the advice of the brain surgeon was 'ridiculous' and found him 'arrogant and patronising', the court heard.

Thomas was taken to Northwick Park Hospital for rehabilitation on October 22, 2007.

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

Alexander Inglis said the family discussed the options for Thomas' future because he was in a vegetative state.

He added: "The only legal way for it to happen for Thomas to die of thirst and hunger.

"It was sick."

Asked how his mother reacted to this suggestion, he said: "She was horrified."

Frances Inglis made the second successful attempt to kill her son on November 21, 2008 it is alleged.

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

Inglis, of denies murder and attempted murder.

The trial continues.