Woman who tried to kill her mother on hospital ward jailed for three years

A woman who tried to kill her elderly mother on a hospital ward using pillows and a knife has been jailed for three years.

Susan Hardwick, 65, told medical staff at Doncaster Royal Infirmary (DRI) “I want to kill her” as they tried to drag her off Joan Hardwick, who was 89 at the time, the city’s crown court heard on Friday.

The judge was told Hardwick, who appeared in the dock using a wheelchair, later told staff her mother “had no quality of life”, but prosecutors said Joan Hardwick was being prepared for discharge to a care home, “was not at death’s door” and “has remained well since”.

Hardwick, of Beech Road, Armthorpe, Doncaster, admitted attempted murder at a previous hearing following a lengthy process to decide whether she was fit to plead.

The defendant, who has cerebral palsy, a likely underlying learning disability and who is being treated for cancer, sobbed loudly throughout her sentencing and as she was wheeled out of the dock to begin her sentence.

The judge, Mr Justice Goss, said it was a “difficult and troubling case” which was unlike any he had encountered before in his career.

He said given Hardwick’s mental disability and “rigid thought process”, as well as an “absence of any other possible reason for such a dramatic act”, he accepted she “might have thought it was the merciful thing to do at that time”.

The judge said the defendant appears to have misunderstood the situation, thinking her mother was being sent back to another hospital, where her treatment had been poor.

He said: “There’s no evidence of your mother requesting or implying that she wanted to die.

“On the day of the offence she was expecting to go to a care home and not to the hospital with which you had an issue.”

He told the defendant her worries and frustration about her mother’s care appeared to “lay at the heard of your actions”.

Michelle Colborne KC, prosecuting, said Joan Hardwick was being prepared for discharge from a geriatric ward at DRI on July 24, 2024, having been at the hospital for three weeks following a transfer from Mexborough Montague Hospital, where she had been treated for a stroke.

Ms Colborne said staff on the ward were first alerted by a “commotion” and a cry for help.

She said the health care assistant who was first on the scene said the defendant was pushing pillows “forcefully” down on her mother’s face.

As they struggled to pull Hardwick back, she told them: “I want to kill her.”

After Hardwick was dragged away, her mother told staff: “She’s tried to kill me,” as she apologised to them for what they had been put through.

The prosecutor said the medics then noticed superficial cuts to Joan Hardwick’s neck, chin and wrist, and there was a knife on her breakfast tray which was not hospital equipment.

She said when hospital security arrived, Hardwick held out her wrists and asked them to “take her away”.

Ms Colborne said the defendant told security “her mother had no quality of life and wanted her dead”, adding: “I planned this. I wanted to kill her.”

She told the court Joan Hardwick now lives in a care home and added: “She was elderly but not at death’s door.

“She was due to be discharged on that day and she has remained well since.”

She added: “She is 90 years of age, and well for a 90-year-old.”

Ms Colborne said it appears Hardwick was concerned her mother was to be returned to Mexborough Montague Hospital, because there had been an issue there previously when a feeding tube had been wrongly inserted into her lung.

Joan Hardwick knew she was going to a care home and not the hospital.

The prosecutor said she could not agree it was an “act of mercy”, and appeared to be more of an “act of frustration”.

But Ms Colborne said the question for the court was whether the defendant had a “genuine belief” she was acting out of mercy.

Nicholas Rhodes KC, defending, said his client has had cerebral palsy from birth and has been dependent on her mother all her life, having never been able to live independently.

She has great difficulties communicating and with her mobility, and also has a depressive disorder, he said.

The court heard the mother and daughter have been co-dependent on each other since the death of the defendant’s father 25 years ago, and Mr Rhodes said they lived a “hermitic” existence.

The barrister said the defendant had been “fixated” on the idea her mother was going back to the Mexborough hospital.

He said “what was in the mind of the defendant” was the important factor, adding: “Did the defendant genuinely believe she was acting out of mercy?”