A mother killed her eight-year-old son by poisoning him with blackcurrant juice laced with prescription drugs, a court has heard. Louise Cameron, 41, allegedly repeatedly gave her young son, Rhys Cameron, the contaminated drink before both were found unconscious in bed following a failed suicide attempt, jurors were told.
Teesside Crown Court heard the youngster, who had mobility issues and learning difficulties, had been dead for some time before he was discovered. Cameron has been charged with murder but has been found unfit to stand trial in the usual way, meaning jurors have been asked to determine whether she carried out the alleged acts.
Prosecutor David Lamb KC told the court Cameron used a pink Hello Kitty-style bottle to repeatedly administer the drink to her son in the hours leading up to his death. He said: “She would prepare this drink in the kitchen whilst Rhys was in the front room, and she was telling Rhys to drink it even though he was not asking for it.”
“Louise Cameron gave Rhys this drink about five or six times and she kept refilling it,” he added. “Rhys was telling his mother that he did not want it and that it did not taste good and he pushed it away. The prosecution’s case is that it was at this point that Louise Cameron was poisoning her son.”
The court heard that on September 15, concerned relatives attended the family home in Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees, at around 10am after growing worried about the pair. Inside the property, they discovered Cameron and Rhys lying in bed together, with Cameron said to have been “groggy” following an apparent overdose.
Jurors were told Rhys initially appeared to be asleep, but relatives quickly realised something was wrong and that he was already dead. Cameron was described as “stroking her son’s face and staring off into space” as the grim discovery was made. Emergency services were called immediately, but paramedics said it was “obvious” Rhys had been dead “for some time” before they arrived, the court heard.
During the investigation, police discovered a note in which Cameron allegedly confirmed she had given her son a mixture of her prescription medication. A pathologist later concluded the drugs identified in Rhys’s system were the cause of his death. The letter also stated Cameron had taken an overdose herself and intended to end her life, but wrote she was “not dying without” her son.
In police interviews, Cameron allegedly told officers she “did not want to leave him behind” and asked: “I’ve just murdered Rhys haven’t I?” She is also said to have explained she did not want to harm her son by stabbing him, instead saying she “chose to poison Rhys” because she believed it would be a “relatively painless way of killing him”.
The court heard Rhys had been born prematurely and that Cameron was a single mother who had been known to social services due to concerns relating to the family. Jurors were told the case would focus on whether Cameron carried out the alleged acts and her mental state at the time of the incident. The trial is ongoing.
