Mother of dead boy had called for help

The mother of a five-year-old boy found beaten to death with a golf club on Christmas morning had made an urgent call to her doctor hours before.

An ambulance was sent to the home that 35-year-old Alison Gorrie shared with her son Brendan in the Leith area of Edinburgh on Wednesday after she complained of feeling unwell. But when it arrived Ms Gorrie, who is understood to have had mental health problems, said she felt better and sent it away.

Five hours later she was foundinjured after falling 30ft from her second-floor flat. The body of her son was found in the front room. Yesterday police were still waiting to talk to Ms Gorrie, who is in a "stable" condition at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. A police spokesman said that, although under police escort, Ms Gorrie was still too unwell to be questioned and it would be several weeks before she could be released from hospital.

Ms Gorrie, a computer consultant, is understood to have been depressed over the break-up of her six-year-old marriage this year. Her husband, Bruce, said: "I am still struggling to accept I will never see him again."