SUSAN HARDWICK

A woman who tried to kill her elderly mother on a hospital ward using pillows and a knife has been jailed for three years.

Susan Hardwick, 65, told medical staff at Doncaster Royal Infirmary "I want to kill her," as they tried to drag her off Joan Hardwick, who was 89 at the time.

Hardwick later told staff her mother "had no quality of life", but prosecutors said Joan was being prepared for discharge to a care home, "was not at death's door" and "has remained well since".

Doncaster Crown Court heard Hardwick, who has health problems, admitted attempted murder at a previous hearing.

She was jailed at the same court earlier.

Hardwick, of Beech Road, Armthorpe, Doncaster, appeared in the dock using a wheelchair.

The defendant, who has cerebral palsy, a likely underlying learning disability, and is being treated for cancer, sobbed loudly as she was wheeled out of the dock to begin her sentence.

The judge, Mr Justice Goss, said it was a "difficult and troubling case" which was unlike any he had encountered before in his career.

He said that, given Hardwick's mental disability and "rigid thought process", as well as an "absence of any other possible reason for such a dramatic act", he accepted that she "might have thought it was the merciful thing to do at that time".