Woman killed mum ‘because of world we live in’

A woman devoted to her mum gave her an overdose of insulin and smothered her with a pillow because of “the world we live in”.

Shirley D’Silva, 55, told an emergency operator she had killed Martha Pereira, 77, on October 25 last year because of the “war around the world”.

The Old Bailey was told that the stress of looking after her mother had resulted in a flaring up of D’Silva’s mental illness, leading to the tragedy. She phoned 999 an hour after the killing and told the operator: “I just decided to take her life. I’ve given her insulin and then I put a pillow on the top of her mouth.”

When asked what made her do it, she said: “It’s the world we live, live around, we’ve been all suffering so long.”

She said her mother had been unwell for a long time, and she did it because of “the war around the world”.

She denied murder, but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility on Monday at the Old Bailey, which was accepted by prosecutors.

D’Silva, a mother-of-two who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, was handed a hospital order without a time limit yesterday.

The grandmother-of-five waved at family members sitting in the court as she was led from the dock.

The court heard her mother had diabetes and dementia and was suffering from lung cancer.

A psychiatrist found D’Silva’s mental state deteriorated due to the stress of caring for her sick mother.

Sentencing her, The Recorder of London, Nicholas Hilliard QC, said: “There is nothing to suggest that you didn’t ordinarily look after her properly. She had lived with you for a number of years, and there was evidence that you were devoted to her.

“You have otherwise led a law abiding life and your culpability for the killing was very low.

“You committed this offence in the grip of mental illness, which was no fault of yours. Nonetheless the result was your elderly mother was unlawfully killed. Every life is precious, and that is a very serious matter.”