Billingham mother poisoned son with methadone, jury heard

Louise Cameron was found barely conscious next to her son Rhys when her mothe Carole and sister Donna called at her Billingham home to check on her on September 15 last year.

Teesside Crown Court heard the 41-year-old made a series of heartbreaking confessions as police tried to get to the bottom of what happened to her eight-year-old disabled son.

A jury was told the mother-of-three allegedly poisoned her son with methadone and morphine over the weekend in September last year.

Mrs Justice Heather William DBE told jurors that they would not have to find the defendant guilty or not guilty of murder but rule on the facts of the evidence heard during the trial.

Cameron is accused of killing Rhys between Saturday, September 13, and Monday, September 15.

The ambulance service alerted police after attending a property on Marsh House Avenue, Billingham, and finding the young boy.

Opening the case, David Lamb KC, prosecuting, said: “Rhys was lying on the left side of his mother’s bed, on his back with the covers pulled over him.

“To Donna it looked like Rhys was asleep however she knew that he was dead. He had white foam around his mouth.”

Jurors heard how it was clear to paramedics that the youngster had been dead for some time and no attempts were made to resuscitate him.

Mr Lamb said Cameron made a number of statements to police officers which were captured on their body-worn cameras.

The clearly distressed mother was heard to say she was “getting done for murder” and that “I’ve just murdered Rhys, haven’t I?”.

The barrister added: “The defendant stated that ‘I wasn’t leaving Rhys to be, because I know what will happen to him and it’s not happening, I didn’t want to hurt him, I didn’t want to have to stab him, or drown him or hurt him, I didn’t want to hurt him’.”

The trial continues.