A 100-year-old mother who was allegedly killed by her well-known hotelier son and his sister by giving her liquid morphine was “in agony” the night before she died, a court has heard.
Oxford restaurateur Jeremy Mogford, 79, and Sarah Pickering, 72, deny murdering their mother, Pamela Mogford, in Bledlow Ridge, Buckinghamshire.
She died at about 00:30 GMT on 15 February 2022, a jury in Oxford Crown Court was told.
Giving evidence, a carer who was looking after Mrs Mogford detailed how unwell she was at the time, saying her condition got “worse and worse” every day.
Mogford opened the first Browns Brasserie in 1973 in Brighton with then-business partner John Mayhew.
He and his sister were arrested after texts were discovered from Pickering on the evening of their mother’s death which included the words “I am actually killing her”.
It is alleged they gave her the equivalent of “at least four times” as much morphine as what her GP had given her the evening before she died to “speed up” her death.
The siblings accept giving their mother Oramorph after the GP had left, but deny intending to quicken her death.
They say they did it because she was in pain.
David Worsfold, a paramedic who assessed Mrs Mogford, said it was obvious she was in pain and that he would have administered her morphine if there had been any available in the ambulance.
He told jurors if he had known Oramorph was in the house, he may have administered a small dose.
He believed Mrs Mogford had had an aortic aneurysm and recommended to her that she should go to hospital, which she declined.
When he discussed the risks with her, “the main one being death”, he recalled that she replied: “Good.”
The court heard Mrs Mogford was described as “EOL”, which refers to end of life care.
Previously, Pickering’s barrister Benjamin Newton KC told the jury her texts were “gallows humour to cope with life’s difficulties”.
In one text exchange, the jury heard she wrote: “Never killed anyone before, but I have often thought about it.
“I shall wait until Foyle is over then I can go to my grave knowing I have topped someone. It’s certainly on my bucket list.”
The siblings also face an alternative charge of attempted murder.
Mogford sold the Browns chain, which has a large presence in university towns such as Oxford and Cambridge, to Bass Brewery for £35m in 1996.
He also founded various independent hotels and restaurants in Oxford, including the Old Bank Hotel and Old Parsonage Hotel, Quod Restaurant, Parsonage Grill and Gee’s Restaurant.
The trial continues.
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