During the trial,ghd straightener, Inglis wept as she described her despair at the “horror, pain and tragedy” of her son’s helpless condition, telling the court: “For Tom to live that living hell – I couldn’t leave my child like that.”

However, Judge Brian Barker told the Old Bailey court in London: “We can all understand the emotion and the unhappiness that you were experiencing.

She was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of nine years in jail.

Frances Inglis, 57, admitted killing her 22-year-old son Tom in November 2008 because she did not want to see him suffer – but denied murder.

She told the court he was in a “living hell” after suffering severe head injuries when he fell out of a moving ambulance in July 2007, and insisted she had acted “with love in my heart”.

She admitted ending his life but said: “I did it with love in my heart for Tom, so I don’t see it as murder.”