Mum convicted of murder plot on son jailed for 17 years

[AGXStarseed]

(Not written by me. Edited to remove the word 'suffering')

Carlisle Crown Court

A mother convicted of plotting with her youngest son to murder his older brother has been jailed for 17 years.

Alison Murphy, 52, who denied the allegation, was convicted by a Carlisle Crown Court jury which heard compelling evidence of text messages she sent to her 23-year-old son Gary Murphy, urging him to kill his brother.

He was given an indefinite hospital order after the court heard that he has Asperger's Syndrome, and that his mother had manipulated this.

But in an unusual turn of events, victim Tony Murphy today repeated a claim he made earlier - telling the judge that his mother was innocent.

"This whole thing has ruined my life," he said.

"I blame Gary and feel sorry for my mum. Her life has been ruined because I believe she is innocent."

During the trial, the jury heard that in one text one text message, Alison Murphy told her youngest son: “I definitely think he should be killed.”

Just an hour later, he plunged a knife into his 26-year-old brother Tony’s neck, severing a jugular vein. His life was saved by emergency surgery.

The horrifying attack happened at Alison Murphy’s Copeland Avenue home in Whitehaven late on April 15 this year.

Gary Murphy's barrister told the court that he now felt remorse. His mother's barrister said she had accommodated and fed her older son and tried to help him overcome his problem with alcohol.

She had also had a hard life and had found her time in custody difficult.

During her trial, the jury of seven woman and five men heard damning evidence of events leading up to the attack. They convicted the victim’s mother after considering powerful text message evidence.

The court heard how Alison Murphy sent the messages to Gary Murphy, encouraging him to kill Tony.

The most damning was sent at around 9.30pm, and in it Alison Murphy told her son: “I definitely think he should be killed but not sure stabbings is the right method. We should make him fall in the harbour or off a cliff.”

In a reply, Gary Murphy said: “I’m fine with whatever as long as he dies.”

Tony Murphy later told police that on the day of the attack he had been out drinking before returning to the home he shared with his mother.

He was sitting on the sofa when his mother came home, followed by Gary.

It was when Alison Murphy left the room that Gary used the knife, stabbing Tony in the neck. “At first I thought he was hugging me,” the victim told the court.

He said: “Then I thought he was hitting me. Then I looked down and saw blood dripping on my trainers and on the floor.”

Mr Murphy, who lost a litre and a half of blood in the attack, then fought desperately for his life, putting his younger brother into a headlock as he wrestled the knife from his hand, bleeding heavily as he did so.

Any suspicion of Alison Murphy was deflected when she called the ambulance.

But the truth was revealed by her text messages.

In her interviews, she denied involvement, blaming Gary’s actions on his anger at her decision to let Anthony live with her.

She admitted that Gary had warned her that if she let her brother move back in he had told her: “I’ll come down in the middle of the night and stab him to death on the sofa”.

Confronted with her text message, Alison Murphy laughed.


Source: Mum convicted of murder plot on son jailed for 17 years

 

[ksheehan88]

Sick *****! One for wanting to murder her son, and two for trying to pass that blame onto her other son.

Having said that, the other son is just as bad, if he did it when sound of mind.... If it was because of a mental illness, he's now in the right place.

Aspergers doesn't make you a killer. If he's been locked up, its because he needs to be assessed for mental health conditions.

 

[WereBear]

Did they try to get away with it?

Because that's a sure sign a person knows what they doing is wrong.

 

[toothless]

i think he struggles with empathy issues,he is very unempathetic about killing like its an every day thing you do,but you do the crime you pay the time i dont care what condition you have unless you totally lack the mental capacity to understand what your doing [like for example you had severe intellectual disability or psychosis/ schizophrenia in a crisis] but with aspergers the point of making it a named condition was to highlight it as a high functioning form of autism so he cannot lack mental capacity as a result of aspergers.
of course the most important thing is the facility the convicted special needs criminal goes in should be chosen very carefully, i personally think anyone on the autism spectrum who is given a sentance should be housed in a forensic hospital-not prison,for those who have additional intellectual disability they should be housed in forensic 'learning disability' [AKA the UK term for intellectual disability] secure hospitals as they would be even more vulnerable around high functioning/cognitively typical convicts.

i totally disagree with sending special needs convicts to jail/prison because it damages them and makes them an easy target with the worst criminals,i have known of some convicts in america who were diagnosed with moderate intellectual disability sent to prison,one with severe [he had killed several people in a public park but didnt have the capacity to cover it up]- some of them on death row,what the hell is going on? its disgusting how the justice system treats everyone as the same,they are creating harder criminals and institutionalizing vulnerable adults who will then need housing in a high support service if they are ever released,institutionalizing people causes a lot of damage to a persons functioning and mental well being.