The sight of his frail mother suffering the pain of the final stages of terminal cancer was enough to provoke Chris Simpson, a doctor, into killing her, according to his lawyer.
Paul Davison, QC, told the High Court yesterday that "for him as a doctor and a son, when she said to him, 'Kit, do something,' it had a profound effect."
Simpson is accused of murdering his 82-year-old mother, Marjorie Simpson, who was found hanging out of bed, the straps of a morphine bag wrapped around her neck.
He is pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. But the defence told the jury that if it was unable to accept he was legally insane that night, it could return a verdict of manslaughter if it agreed he had been provoked by his mother's plea and her pitiful appearance.
But crown prosecutor David McNaughton rejected the notion of provocation, saying that Simpson was a doctor who had seen more suffering than the average person and had the training to deal with it.
"Ordinary New Zealanders resist the urge to put the sick and suffering out of their misery every day. As a doctor he should have resisted the urge to kill her."
Mr McNaughton said there was no evidence that Simpson's mother had asked for his help, or if she did, she meant anything other than pain relief. Simpson was seen by his brother that night holding a pillow over his mother's face, after twice injecting her with a powerful cocktail of drugs.
Psychiatrists for the defence agreed Simpson suffers from a bi-polar disorder that used to be known as manic depression. That, combined with the close relationship he had with his mother, would have made him more vulnerable to the provocation, according to the defence.
But the Crown alleges that what provoked him "had nothing to do with the words or conduct of the deceased. She wouldn't die, that's what provoked the accused."
Mother's pain led to killing - lawyer
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