Bertha Martin murder suspect 'attacked her mother before'

Jan 29 2009 by Liz Hands, The Journal

A FORMER nurse accused of killing her own mother had attacked her on previous occasions, a court heard yesterday.

Murder suspect Jennifer Shelton’s friend said she thought she was capable of attacking Bertha Martin having witnessed previous violent episodes.

Margaret Gregg, a former colleague of Shelton, who had also become friends with Mrs Martin, said Shelton was quick-tempered, impatient and easily upset.

Newcastle Crown Court also heard how Shelton had been acting ‘strangely’ at South Tyneside Hospital after her mother had been admitted suffering from a fatal head injury.

Prosecutors claim Shelton had smashed Mrs Martin, 85, in the head with an ornamental horse, the pensioner dying a week later.

Mrs Gregg, who befriended Shelton when they both worked at the same nursing home, said: “I believe she was capable of attacking her mother. Mrs Martin was a very private lady and didn’t really want anyone to know what was happening but I told her to get help.”

On June 13 last year, just days before her death, Mrs Gregg said Shelton had been particularly aggressive towards her mother.

She said: “She was walking up to her mam and put her hand in her face and said ‘I hate you’.

“Then she was hitting her on the arm and would come back and more or less repeat it.”

The court heard how Shelton had suffered mental health problems and had been sectioned in January and February last year.

When her mother was admitted to hospital with the head injury in June, nurses say Shelton was acting strangely.

Nurse Debbie Schofield said: “She was walking away then coming back while zipping her coat up and down all the time. She said ‘I’ve just thrown my life away’. I didn’t know why she was telling me that and I found it very strange.

“I said ‘I don’t really know what you mean’ and she said ‘I’ve just ruined my future’. On another occasion at the hospital, another nurse, Patricia Fiksen, bumped into Shelton in the lift.

She said: “She looked a bit distressed and said ‘my mother is dying, my mother will never forgive me. God will never forgive me’.

“She looked very distraught and distressed and I asked if she wanted to go to the chapel.”

Shelton, 56, who lived with her mother on Woodlands Road, South Shields, denies murder.

The trial continues.

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