Mother spiked son's drink

A WOMAN who spiked her alcoholic son's drink in a desperate attempt to force him to get help for his problem walked free from court yesterday.

Anne Cain, of High Blantyre in Lanarkshire, decided that giving an overdose to her son William, 25, was the only way to get him into hospital for treatment, Hamilton Sheriff Court was told. Last August, she crushed 20 Temazepam tablets (a drug used to treat insomnia) into a tumbler of fizzy soft drink and told him that either he took the spiked drink or she would take it. After watching him take the drink, Mrs Cain, 48, called the police. Her son was taken to hospital where he had his stomach pumped.

Yesterday she was given an absolute discharge after admitting administering drugs. Sheriff William Gibson said the sentence was 'the only appropriate action for a court to take'.

After the case Mrs Cain said that her son was now receiving treatment for alcoholism in an Edinburgh clinic.