Man tries to take dead mum on ferry

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, Boulogne area prosecutor, said 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-yearold mother’s blood in two of them. 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 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.

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

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.