Briton tries to take dead mum, 86, on Calais ferry

She was in passenger seat

‘Thought she was asleep’

A BRITON was arrested at Calais with his mother’s corpse in the passenger seat of his car.

The unnamed 53-year-old told French officials that she had only just died – however it was clear she had been dead for many hours.

Pascal Marconville, the Boulogne area prosecutor, said that the pair were from the Isle of Wight and had been staying at their French properties, one in the Ardeche and two in Burgundy.

Investigators found the 86-year-old mother’s blood in two of the holiday homes. Neighbours had heard the pair shouting at each other and her body was covered in bruises.

The son told police officers that his mother was being treated for cancer and had suffered ‘recurrent falls’ while walking.

Searches were carried out at the family’s properties on Friday afternoon because of ‘suspicious statements by the son,’ said Mr Marconville.

The pair were returning from their property in Vernon in the Ardeche and had stopped in one of their Burgundy properties.

Detectives found blood on the staircase at the house in La Bost, a tiny hamlet near Chateau-Chinon, Burgundy. Eric Jussiere, the local mayor, said the son bought the property in 2005 and did not mix with neighbours.

One neighbour in Vernon said that he saw the mother and son arrive on Wednesday, and that they had been heard ‘shouting at each other’ before leaving abruptly the next day.

Mr Marconville said forensic scientists had not discovered any evidence to suggest a crime had been committed and a post-mortem examination showed only that the mother, the widow of a GP, was ‘in a very precarious state of health’.

Police were called to Calais at around 5am on Friday after the man reported his mother feeling unwell, but she was clearly dead when they inspected her body.

‘During the journey, the son noticed that his mother was not responding but he thought she was asleep,’ Mr Marconville said.

The son, who was trying to board a ferry to Kent, was considered to be in a fragile mental state and was taken to a psychiatric unit. The pair visited France twice a year.