'Mercy killing' dad cleared of son's murder

Published on Monday 12 December 2005 13:03

A FORMER soldier accused of murdering his terminally-ill son was cleared by a jury today.

Andrew Wragg, 38, admitted killing ten-year-old Jacob in July last year, but denied murder.

Mr Wragg, a former SAS soldier who had worked as a private security guard in Iraq, claimed he was suffering from an abnormality of mind when he suffocated the boy at the family home in Worthing, West Sussex.

Jacob suffered from the rare Hunter Syndrome and was not expected to live beyond his teens.

After the verdict of not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter, judge Mrs Justice Anne Rafferty retired to consider sentence.

The prosecution claimed Wragg murdered Jacob in a "selfish killing" because he could no longer cope with the condition.

Philip Katz QC, prosecuting, consistently rejected the defendant's account that he had carried out a "mercy killing", telling the court mercy killing was "no defence to murder".

Wragg said he had "seen in Jacob's eyes" that the boy wanted him to end his life.

Wragg claimed that the pressure of caring for Jacob, his failing marriage and the horrors he saw in Iraq led him to a state of mind in which he believed his son had "come to the end of the road".