Founder of Browns brasserie chain and his sister accused of murdering their 100 year-old mother ‘gave her liquid morphine to speed up her death’ court hears

Jeremy Mogford, founder of the Browns brasserie chain, and his sister Sarah Pickering are accused of murdering their 100-year-old mother by giving her liquid morphine to hasten her death. Prosecutors told Oxford Crown Court that the siblings gave her at least four times the morphine dose her GP had administered that evening, intending to speed her death.

The siblings admit giving Pamela Mogford Oramorph after the GP left, but say they did so because she was in pain and deny intending to kill her. Her GP had visited three times on 14 February 2022, when he thought she might be dying; he recorded her cause of death the next day as old age. The siblings also face an alternative charge of attempted murder, and the trial is continuing.