A depressed mother drugged and strangled her 13-year-old son after fearing she would lose her home after her husband left her for another woman.

Lesley Wessel, 43, was jailed for four-and-a-half years yesterday for the manslaughter of her son.

She first tricked Alex into taking four tablets of the tranquilliser Temazepam by telling him they were vitamin tablets.

Lewes Crown Court heard that when he fell drowsy she strangled him with a curtain cord before lying him under a quilt on her bed, placing his favourite cuddly toy rabbit next to him and a pillow over his face. She then attempted to take her own life.

Police found Wessel near to death lying next to her dead son at the family home in Mayfield Close, Findon, in September last year. Paramedics managed to revive her.

She told police that she wanted to free Alex from future pain and hardship caused by the losses to which she and her son were about to be subjected.

She had scrawled a message above the bed which said: "My heart is broken. Alex and I are free from any more cruelty."

Wessel admitted manslaughter, at an earlier hearing, on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Sentencing her, Mr Justice Wright said: "I accept that the combination of misfortunes that came upon you in the autumn of last year did, in effect, overwhelm you with anxiety and depression to the extent that for a period of time it produced an imbalance in your mind which justified the Crown to accept your plea of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility but that does not mean responsibility was non-existent.

"I have to pass sentence which first of all properly reflects the horror, and there is no other word for it, which is thought by all right-thinking members of society who contemplate the crime you have committed.

"You took the life of your only son and that is something you will have to live with for the rest of your life. You have cut off the life of a young boy who had the rest of his life ahead of him and who was wholly innocent and that is a terrible thing to do.

"I have to pass a proper level of punishment for your crime but one which will not crush you and ruin your chances for your future."

A post-mortem revealed Alex appeared to have a ligature strangulation mark on his neck and had Temazepam in his blood.

His mother's bruises showed she had first tried to hang herself and had slight marks where she had tried to cut herself.

John Causer, prosecuting, told how Wessel had taken 20 anti-depressant tablets and was found with a plastic bag over her head.

He said Wessel had sent a letter to her solicitor before the incident, which was addressed to her sister.

It said: "Please understand the action I have taken is to protect Alex and I from further abuse. I cannot bear anymore."