A British woman found guilty of murder after giving her brain-damaged son a lethal heroin injection to end his “living hell” lost an appeal against conviction today.
Frances Inglis (58), of Dagenham, east London, was jailed for life with a minimum term of nine years at the Old Bailey in January.
Three judges at the court of appeal in London today rejected her conviction challenge, but reduced the minimum period she must serve before becoming eligible to apply for parole to five years.
After her conviction her family said they were standing by her over the death of her 22-year-old son Tom.
Inglis was not present for the ruling.
Lord Judge said: “There is no doubt at all that the appellant was subjected to great stress and anguish, but dealing with it briefly and starkly, there was, as our analysis of the evidence underlines, not a scintilla of evidence that when the appellant injected the fatal dose of heroin into her son she had lost her self-control.”
Examining the concept of mercy killing in the ruling, he said: “We must underline that the law of murder does not distinguish between murder committed for malevolent reasons and murder motivated by familial love.
“Subject to well-established partial defences, like provocation or diminished responsibility, mercy killing is murder.”
Tom Inglis suffered severe head injuries when he fell out of a moving ambulance in July 2007.
His mother, who worked as a carer for disabled children, first tried to end his life two months after the accident when he was being treated at Queens Hospital in Romford, Essex. His heart stopped for six minutes but he was revived.
The mother-of-three was charged with attempted murder before successfully trying again in November 2008 after barricading herself in her son’s room at the Gardens nursing home in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, and supergluing the door.
Jurors returned majority verdicts of 10-2 and the trial judge told them that they could not have had “a more difficult case”.
PA