A mother fatally poisoned her ailing 9 year old son to death by putting salt in his feed while he was being treated in hospital, the prosecuting counsel told an Old Bailey jury last week.
The prosecutor, Mr Nicholas Hilliard, alleged that Petrina Stocker, aged 42, had a rare syndrome whereby a person fabricates symptoms of illness in another. He alleged that Mrs Stocker also contaminated her son's urine samples with blood.
Mrs Stocker denies putting the fatal amount of salt in her son David's feed. She told police after her arrest: "I would not do anything to harm him. I love him."
The jury heard that between February and August 2001 her son was treated first in Oldchurch Hospital in Romford and then the specialist children's hospital Great Ormond Street, in London.
Towards the end of his treatment, David was being fed with a specially prepared milk feed. On 18 August 2001 his health deteriorated rapidly.
"Investigations revealed extraordinarily high levels of salt in his blood," said Mr Hilliard. "Efforts were made to reduce the salt levels, but he suffered from severe swelling to the brain and died on August 20.
"The reason for David's fatal level of salt was that his mother had added it to his bottle… contaminating the special milk feed," Mr Hilliard suggested. "Although no one saw her adding the salt, all the evidence establishes that she was responsible.
"That episode of salt poisoning was the last of a series of acts done in an attempt to fabricate aspects of her son's illness to produce symptoms in her son. It happened in hospital while under the supervision of medical staff."
Before February 2001 David was a fit and healthy child, said Mr Hilliard. But then, he said, he went into a dramatic decline, with lethargy, depression, and vomiting.
"Towards the end he was virtually immobile and lost a lot of weight. Doctors who looked after him found it difficult to make a diagnosis."
The court heard that staff later analysed feeding bottles used by David. One showed it had had four and half level teaspoons of salt added to it.
Before the bottles were kept in a fridge on the ward, accessible to staff and parents. Each bottle was labelled with the patient's name.
The trial continues.