Mum present in mattress along with her useless son, 8, after ‘poisoning his blackcurrant juice’
Louise Cameron gave her son Rhys, 8, morphine and spiked his blackcurrant juice with methadone. Her sister later found her in bed with the dead child when she turned up at the house worried
Rhys Cameron was killed by his own mother(Image: Cleveland Police)
A mum has been found guilty of murdering her own child by poisoning his juice with drugs. Louise Cameron administered morphine to her eight-year-old son Rhys and laced his blackcurrant juice with methadone.
Over the weekend of September 13 and 14, Cameron left a note for her family stating she was “not dying without him”. Teesside Crown Court heard that Cameron’s sister grew worried when she couldn’t reach Cameron over the weekend, leading her to visit the house on Monday, September 15, prior to a planned visit from Cameron’s social worker.
Upon arrival, she discovered her sister in bed with Rhys, who was deceased. The court was told that Cameron seemed “out of it” and may have attempted to take a lethal overdose after killing him.
A family member informed the police that Cameron had been under stress during a pub meal on the Friday, when Rhys, who was autistic, “had a meltdown”.
The relative stated that Cameron had intended to discuss matters with her social worker during a visit that week, but alleged the professional had “left early” when Rhys began crying “because the television wasn’t working”.
At the University Hospital of North Tees in Stockton, the court was told, Cameron confessed: “I’ve just murdered Rhys. I didn’t want to have to stab him or drown him or hurt him.”, reports Teesside Live.
On Thursday morning, the jury took less than an hour to convict her over his death. Judge Heather Williams announced that Cameron will be sentenced on Thursday, September 18.
Meanwhile, a “callous and uncaring” mother who murdered her seven-week-old daughter by shattering her skull in a fit of rage has been handed a minimum jail term of more than 12 years.
Sarah Ngaba, who popped into a shop to purchase a lottery ticket before seeking medical help for Eliza Ngaba, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 12 years and 154 days after a judge described the killing as “the culmination of increasingly hostile behaviour” towards the infant.
Ngaba was convicted of murder last month after jurors heard that severe injuries from violent shaking and an impact to the head in November 2019 contributed to London-born Eliza’s death from an infection in August 2022.
Ngaba, formerly of Briarwood in Brookside, Telford, Shropshire, was imprisoned for 14 years for wounding in 2021 and charged with murder after Eliza’s death.
The 32-year-old’s murder trial at Birmingham Crown Court heard she attempted to conceal what she had done by lying to medics and police.
She was also captured on CCTV visiting a shop where she bought a lottery ticket, before taking Eliza to hospital in a taxi on November 13, 2019.
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