The founder of Browns Brasseries and his sister allegedly gave their 100-year-old mother liquid morphine to speed up her death, a court has heard.
Jeremy Mogford, 79, and Sarah Pickering, 72, deny murdering Pamela Mogford at her home in Bledlow Ridge, Buckinghamshire, in February 2022.
Their mother’s death was initially attributed to old age. However, the prosecution later uncovered messages in which Ms Pickering appeared to discuss administering morphine and wrote: “I am actually killing her.”
Opening the case, Julian Christopher KC said the siblings gave Mrs Mogford Oramorph after her GP had visited the cottage for the final time on February 14.
He told jurors that, using an oral syringe, they gave her the equivalent of at least four times the amount of morphine the doctor had administered by injection that evening.
“It was the prosecution’s case that their intention in doing so was to speed up their mother’s death,” Mr Christopher said.
The defendants accept giving their mother Oramorph after the GP left, but deny intending to hasten her death. They say they administered it because she was in pain.
Mrs Mogford had been bed-bound but retained her mental faculties, and was cared for at home by a live-in carer. She had lived at Rose Cottage, the family home, for 75 years and was said to have been determined not to go into hospital.
An ambulance was called after it was thought she might have suffered a stroke. When paramedics warned that refusing hospital treatment could mean she died, she replied: “Good.”
Ms Pickering, who lived near Guildford, told paramedics by telephone that her mother had wanted to die for some time so she could be with her husband. Prosecutors stressed there was no suggestion that Mrs Mogford was suicidal or had asked anyone to help her die.
The GP visited three times on February 14. He administered two injections of morphine and haloperidol, then returned after his shift and gave her another injection because she remained uncomfortable.
He left additional ampoules at the house in case another doctor needed to attend overnight. Mrs Mogford died in the early hours of February 15, and no post-mortem examination was carried out because her death appeared natural.
The alleged administration of further morphine came to light only later, when police examining the phone of Ms Pickering’s husband, Paul Pidgeon, found messages referring to it.
In messages sent on February 14, Ms Pickering wrote: “Just wish she would go to sleep now and not suffer,” and “hoping she will slip away in the night.” In another text, she said: “Think we might give her some morphine tonight, but don’t tell anyone.”
She also told a friend: “Two injections from the Doc but not enough, just between me and you and the gatepost Jeremy and I have given two more and still not worked.”
Shortly before 10pm, she asked her brother: “Can I give some more? It’s awful listening to this.” Mr Mogford replied: “Yes, go ahead.”
Ms Pickering later told her husband that she was “actually killing her”. In further messages, she referred to waiting until the end of the television programme Foyle’s War before giving another dose, and wrote: “Never killed anyone before, but I have often thought about it.”
She added: “I shall wait until Foyle is over then I can go to my grave knowing I have topped someone. It’s certainly on my bucket list.”
Prosecutors also referred to a message sent by Mr Mogford on the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s death in September 2022, in which he asked: “Do you think they will morphine Queenie up like we did?”
Mrs Mogford’s coffin was exhumed in June 2023, more than a year after her burial. A post-mortem found morphine in her body, but experts said the time that had passed made it impossible to determine how much she had received.
The pathologist recorded the cause of death as “unascertained”. Prosecutors said it was also impossible to establish from the scientific evidence alone whether Mrs Mogford had been given more morphine than the injections administered by her GP.
Mrs Mogford had been prescribed temazepam to help her sleep. The court heard that both the drug and morphine can suppress breathing, with the prosecution arguing that the effect of morphine would have been more significant because of the temazepam.
Mr Mogford founded the first Browns Brasserie in Brighton in 1973 with business partner John Mayhew. He sold the chain to Bass Brewery for £35 million in 1996.
After being charged with murder last year, he described the accusation as “nonsense”, saying his mother was nearly 101 and had died “as her doctor stated, of old age”.
The trial continues.
