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David McLean is on trial at Winchester Crown Court charged with the attempted murder of 92-year-old Margaret McLean at her home in Waltham Chase in the early hours of October 7, 2022.

The trial has heard that the 72-year-old is accused of smothering Mrs McLean with a cushion because he “could not stand to watch her suffering”.

The jury has been told that Mrs McLean was undergoing end-of-life care and medics thought she was about to die.

Jodie Mittell, prosecuting, has said that it was not believed that the defendant’s actions had caused his mother’s death but the prosecution case was that he had attempted to end her life.

The court was shown body-worn video filmed by a firearms officer called to the house because the death had been reported as a murder after McLean had told an NHS 111 operator that he had killed his mother.

The defendant was shown on the footage confirming his name and when asked if he was alright, he replied: “No I am not alright, my mother is dead.”

He is then heard telling officers: “I hope you never get yourself in the situation I have found myself in.”

McLean is asked what he had told the NHS operator, and replies: “I said I had passed my mother into the next world with the black cushion which is somewhere over there.

“I put it over her face because she was drowning in her own snot and I pushed it over her face.”

The defendant also says: “She helped me with everything I have done in my life.

“I couldn’t watch her die, have any of you watched your mother die.”

He is also heard on CCTV footage filmed after his arrest describing his mother as a “war hero” whose health had gone downhill in her last three or four years. When asked to confirm that he killed her, McLean replies: “Yes I did.”

Also in the video footage, McLean asks the officer: “Did this come over as a murder, because there are so many of you?”

He later says: “How many policemen does it take to arrest an old man?”

McLean denies the charge and the trial continues.

Ex-mayor accused of attempting to kill dying mum said he pushed cushion "over her face"