Father 'knelt over child's body'

Doctors had said Jacob would not live beyond his 20s

The mother of a terminally-ill boy allegedly murdered by his father has told jurors how she found her husband crouching over the child's body.

Mary Wragg told Lewes Crown Court she went into her son's bedroom to find her husband kneeling over Jacob Wragg, 10.

"I just said 'oh my God, what have you done?' over and over," she said.

Andrew Wragg, 38, denies murdering his son at the family home in Worthing, West Sussex, but admits manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility.

Weeping in court on Tuesday, Mrs Wragg said: "I went into Jacob's bedroom and Andy was kneeling over Jacob who was on the bed.

"Andy was crouching over him, holding him."

Earlier in the day, the court heard that the terminally-ill boy was "happy, jolly and flirty" on 24 July 2004, the day he died.

Difficult termination

The 10-year-old, who had Hunter syndrome, had spent the day with his mother Mary at a funfair eating hotdogs.

About eight hours later, Jacob was smothered as he slept.

Mary Wragg told the jury how she and Jacob had visited the Worthing funfair with her younger son George and her mother.

"Jacob was in his wheelchair for his own safety and because he got tired, but he was mobile between the car and the wheelchair," she said.

"He was happy and giggling and clapping his hands. He was jolly."

Mrs Wragg said that when Jacob was born in November 1993, he was healthy, apart from having jaundice.

However when he was admitted to hospital on one occasion, tests showed he had a life-limiting degenerative disease.

Andrew Wragg told police his son's death had been a mercy killing

The court heard how, in the years before Jacob's death, Mr Wragg said he would put a pillow over his son's face if he was ever suffering.

Mrs Wragg said the couple aborted another child when an amniocentesis showed the baby, who they later named Henry, had the same disorder as Jacob.

She said: "He (Wragg) felt very clear that it was the best thing we should do and we had two hours, we had to make a decision very quickly."

Mr Wragg has admitted suffocating his son with a pillow at about 2330 GMT on 24 July.

He told officers it was a "mercy killing".

But the prosecution claim it was a selfish killing because he could no longer cope with Jacob.

The trial continues.