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Woman 'killed parents with iron' | Woman 'killed parents with iron' |
(40 minutes later) | |
A woman accused of murdering her elderly parents at their home drugged them before stabbing and hitting them both with an iron, a court heard. | |
Arthur Toop, 82, and his wife Joan, 74, were discovered dead at their Uplands Road bungalow in Charminster, Bournemouth, on 28 November last year. | Arthur Toop, 82, and his wife Joan, 74, were discovered dead at their Uplands Road bungalow in Charminster, Bournemouth, on 28 November last year. |
Winchester Crown Court was told their daughter Susan Toop, 54, a nurse, also attacked them with a knife. | |
She admits manslaughter with diminished responsibility but denies murder. | |
Multiple knife wounds | |
Ms Toop, who worked in the outpatients department of the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, told police that she wanted to put her parents out of their misery, the jury heard. | |
But Timothy Mousley QC, prosecuting, told the court that the parents "had a good quality of life". | |
He added that Ms Toop's relationship with her "domineering" mother had deteriorated in the weeks before they were killed. | |
The court heard that friends of the family contacted police after Mrs Toop and her daughter failed to attend a hair appointment on 28 November. | |
When officers arrived at the house, Ms Toop, who was suffering from a wound to her neck and cuts to her wrists, told them she had inflicted the injuries on herself. | |
Mr Mousley said that she told police in an interview that she had taken drugs prescribed to her for insomnia to give her courage to kill her parents. | |
Blunt force | |
Ms Toop, who worked for the NHS for 30 years, crushed up tablets and placed them in her father's sandwich and mother's coffee before swallowing more than 60 herself, the court heard. | |
The jury heard that Mr Toop died from multiple blunt force injuries which fractured his skull and "pulped" his brain. | |
Mrs Toop suffered multiple blunt force injuries, also probably caused by the ornamental flat iron, and also suffered 28 knife wounds. | |
The court heard that Ms Toop, who has been detained in a mental health hospital, was overheard by a nurse saying: "It wasn't meant to happen like this, I just wanted us all to go together." | |
The case continues. | The case continues. |