Liverpool daughter left 91-year-old mum 'lying in filth'

A woman who left her 91-year-old mother "lying in filth for at least seven days" has been found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter.

Therese Curphey, 53, was the sole carer for her vulnerable mother Teresa at their home in Lydford Road, Liverpool.

The elderly woman died at the Royal Liverpool Hospital on 20 February 2017. Post-mortem tests found she died of sepsis, hypothermia and skin ulcers.

Curphey, convicted at Liverpool Crown Court, will be sentenced on 1 May.

Paramedics found the "emaciated" 91-year-old woman lying on the floor, dirty and cold and "making wailing noises", the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

The jury unanimously found Curphey guilty of the gross negligence manslaughter of her mother.

Paramedics said there was a strong smell of human waste as they entered the house and they found bin bags full of household waste up to 3ft (1m) in most rooms.

The court heard they had struggled to get inside the room where the elderly woman had been lying on the floor "for at least seven days", because there were objects placed against the door.

Curphey claimed her mother had fallen the night before, the CPS said.

Pascale Jones from the CPS said Curphey's treatment of her mother, who would have been in "extreme pain" was a "dismal dereliction" of her duty of care.

She said she had declined help from neighbours and social services and changed her mother's medication because she thought she "knew better than the doctor".

Ms Jones added: "[Curphey] alleged that on two occasions she had the strength to pick her mother from the floor and put her on her cluttered bed.

"However, she claims that chronic fatigue prevented her from throwing the piles of bin bags and rubbish accumulated in her house."