The leader of an anti-euthanasia organisation has attacked the sentence handed down by a judge to a woman who helped her mother to die.

Dr Peggy Norris, chairman of Alert, hit out after Gillian Jennison, a 52-year-old university lecturer of Alma Terrace, East Morton, Bingley, was given a year's probation for her role in Annie Wilks' death.

Jennison placed a pillow over her mother's face after feeding her a large quantity of sleeping tablets as requested by her.

The judge Mrs Janet Smith accepted that there was no ulterior motive and heard that she was a loving and devoted daughter who had only carried out the wishes of her confused and depressed mother who was suffering from dementia.

Dr Norris said: "Of course I think it's appalling. The judge's statement and sentence is sending out a message that in certain circumstances you can kill your mother.

"This was someone who was not in a lot of pain but a very helpless type of person. We have an ageing population and what sort of message is this? The law must apply to everyone and everybody is endangered by this.

"I realise that her motives were to help her mother but she was mentally incapacitated. I think it is appalling. Perhaps she should have been charged with murder, a wrong message has come out of court.

"She may have done this with compassion but that's not the point. She has got to live with it. She should have asked for help from the Social Services.

"No matter how you dress it up that's no excuse for killing a person. It's against the law and we must not bend the law to suit the circumstances.

"The crunch was that her mother didn't want to go back into a nursing home and Mrs Jennison could have got home help. She was not in pain and not suffering. It's very serious, to be quite honest, she was a mentally incapacitated patient."

But John Oliver, general secretary of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, said after the case: "Mrs Jennison is a compassionate, caring daughter whose only crime was to help her mother carry out her wishes. We welcome the leniency of the judge in her sentencing."

Mrs Jennison was not available for comment.

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