Mother kept able-bodied son in a wheelchair for five years so 'he would never leave her'
By LIZ HULL
Last updated at 21:24pm on 7th April 2008

A single mother kept her young son in a wheelchair for five years because she feared he would become independent and leave her, a court heard yesterday.

The 31-year-old tricked doctors into believing the child, now 11, was ill and could not walk as part of the bizarre child cruelty plot.

She claimed her son regularly suffered fits and duped her GP into prescribing medication to treat him.

It was only when the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, gave the boy an accidental overdose that she was found out.

Paramedics called to her home became suspicious after she tried to hide medication she had given the boy.

Police were alerted and she confessed to a psychiatrist that she had fabricated his condition because she was worried the youngster would eventually become independent and leave home.


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