Father 'killed son in drunken moment'

A former soldier suffocated his terminally ill son then raised a wine glass to toast the boy over his dead body, the court heard today.

Andrew Wragg claimed he had carried out a mercy killing on 10-yearold Jacob, but the jury was told it was "a selfish killing done in drink".

Jacob was suffering from the rare genetic disease Hunter's Syndrome but was loved by all because "he was such a little character".

He could have had three more years of life, and his mother, Mary, who cared for him "concentrated on what he could still do and not what he had lost", the court was told.

Wragg, who had returned from Iraq months earlier, placed a pillow over Jacob's face as he slept in the family home in Worthing, West Sussex, last July. When Mrs Wragg returned she found her husband weeping. He told her "I've done it", then raised his glass to toast Jacob who was now "at peace".

Wragg dialled 999 to confess what he had done and told police: "It's a mercy killing, my son wanted me to do it."

Officers could smell the drink on his breath as he held his hands out in front of him and told them to "arrest me". Analysis of his blood showed he was about three-and-a-half times over the drink-drive limit.

Wragg, 37, denies murder but admits manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility because of a temporary abnormality of mind.

But Philip Katz QC, prosecuting, told Lewes Crown Court: "Wragg may have been feeling disappointment, sadness, loss, fear and anger.

"And while these may be reasonable and understandable emotions given this distressing situation, they do not amount to mental illness. Nor was he suffering from any abnormality of mind that would substantially impair responsibility for his actions.

"It was Mary, not Andrew Wragg, who was the primary carer for Jacob. Wragg had distanced himself from Jacob. This was a selfish killing done in drink, possibly as a perceived way out of the situation he found too difficult to put up with."

Mrs Wragg, 41, was also arrested but released without charge, said Mr Katz. The jury was told of the couple's turbulent 12-year marriage and of Wragg's habitual drinking. When Jacob was two Mrs Wragg overheard her husband talking to a mother of an even more disabled child and telling her he would put a pillow over Jacob's face rather than let him suffer as much as that other child, the court heard.

On the day Jacob died he was taken on an outing to the beach and enjoyed a hotdog. But Wragg spent the day drinking with a friend.

About 7pm he rang his wife, who was holding Jacob in her arms at the time, and told her he had looked into Jacob's eyes and "saw he had no future" adding that he was going to take the boy away - "implying he was going to kill him", said Mr Katz.

Wragg insisted to his wife: "I'm doing it for Jacob."

The case continues.