Stephanie Adams

Stephanie Adams was found dead at her home with a plastic bag over her head.

Her 42-year-old mother was found soon after suffering from an overdose.

It was thought that her mother had killed her because she was dying and that she had feared for Stephanie Adams's future as she was handicapped. 

However, the inquest heard that it could not be proven that the plastic bag and caused her death and the Director of Public Prosecutions declined to make any charges.

Stephanie Adams suffered brain damage as a baby after receiving a whooping cough vaccination and started to have epileptic fits and subsequently required constant care. It was said that despite being crippled herself with arthritis and then losing her husband, that her mother struggled on nursing her. However, in 1982 she discovered that she had cancer of the breast that was spreading through her body. 

It was heard that Stephanie Adams's mother had devoted her life to caring with Stephanie Adams, but that when she was diagnosed with cancer, she snapped,  after seeing Stephanie Adams have three epileptic fits, suffocated her.

It was thought that in a moment of stress her mother had placed a plastic bag over Stephanie Adams's face. 

Stephanie Adams was later found dead at her home with her mother lying nearby in a semi-conscious state, having taken 30 painkilling tablets.

She was found by neighbours that broke in and found her on the verge of unconsciousness. Whilst they waited for an ambulance, they then forced the mother to vomit the painkillers.

Her mother later said:

However, a pathologist said that Stephanie Adams died from asphyxia and exhaustioin, but could not say whether her death was caused by the plastic bag or an epileptic fit that she had been having at the time. He said that he could find no conclusive evidence that the plastic bag had contribulted to or caused Stephanie Adams's death. 

The Coroner was reported to have reluctantly recorded a verdict of unlawful killing even though her mother would face no criminal charges.

He said that the possibility that Stephanie Adams had died from natural causes was too remote to be considered, adding that he beleived that her breathing must have been impaired by the polythene bag. 

When he passed the verdict he said that it grieved him to do so but that the evidence left him with no alternative. 

Stephanie Adams's mother declined to give evidence at the inquest.

Stephanie Adams's mother's solicitor said that she was devestated. the solicitor added that she was appalled by the verdict as it flew in the face of the medical evidence.