Mehmetaliogullari trial: single mum denies 'giving nature a helping hand'

Pembe Mehmetaliogullari denies attempting to murder her severely disabled son, Mustafa, known as ‘Musti’.

Mehmetaliogullari, of Kerrison Mews, Lower Market Street, Hove, also denies a charge of giving the ten-year-old boy a noxious substance.

While giving evidence to the court, the 48-year-old broke down in tears as she repeatedly denied administering prescription drugs to her son.

Forensic evidence has shown that when he died, the boy, who was adopted when he was a baby, had traces of Co-codamol and Citaloprom, an anti-depressant, in his system.

The court has heard that paramedics were called to the defendant’s home at Eastview Terrace, Sedlescombe, on September 27, 2018, and found the boy in bed and unresponsive.

He was taken to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in in Brighton, where he died three days later.

During his life, the boy suffered from cerebral palsy, scoliosis and epilepsy, and could only communicate by blinking - when indicating "yes" to a question - and shaking his head for "no".

It is the prosecution’s case that Mehmetaliogullari administered the Citalopram at home and the Co-codamol “covertly” at the hospital.

The court has previously heard that the defendant had been prescribed both drugs.

Lewis Power QC, defending, asked Mehmetaliogullari: “Even if it was only to alleviate [the boy’s] pain, did you administer any drugs?”

To which the defendant replied: “No.”

In cross examination, Miranda Moore QC, prosecuting, said she this was the “last opportunity” for Mehmetaliogullari to tell the court if she knew how the drugs came to be in her son’s system.

She asked the defendant if she had “decided to give nature a helping hand” by administering the drugs, and said that her responses were casting “suspicion on the very carers” who were helping her look after the boy, who required 24-hour nursing care.

She asked the defendant: “Were you at the end of your tether?”

“No,” the defendant replied. “He was what I lived for.”

The prosecutor then asked Mehmetaliogullari if she could “offer an alternative” to the “situation we are dealing with”, to which the defendant replied: “I really can’t. I wish I could.”

The defendant told the court her arranged marriage in the 90s to a local policeman in Northern Cyprus started to break down after the couple found out she could not have children.

"It was like I didn’t exist," she said. "I wasn't worthy. He started drinking and couldn't accept it."

She described her former husband’s family as “narrow minded”.

“His brothers and sisters made comments about me not being able to give him children,” she said.

The court has heard that the baby the couple finally adopted had been found in a dustbin.

When the husband found out the baby was severely disabled at six months old, he issued an "ultimatum".

"He said it was 'baby or me'," she told the court.

The court heard that when the marriage broke down the defendant brought the boy back to Britain.

The case, at Brighton Crown Court before Mrs Justice Justine Thornton DBE QC, continues.

READ MORE: Hove mum accused of attempted murder let down by nursing care, court told