Myrtle Cothill: 92 -year-old Facing Deportation 'at Risk Of Death In Months'

Evidence submitted to Home Office on behalf of widow battling be left in UK depicts removal to South Africa could have fatal repercussions

A 92 -year-old widow battling to stay in the legal care of her daughter in Britain would be at risk of death within three months if the Home Office carries through with plans to remove her to her native South Africa, according to new medical evidence.

Myrtle Cothill, who has heart problems, is losing her eyesight and cannot stroll unaided, is currently appeared after by her only daughter, Mary Wills, in Poole, Dorset. She had been booked on a Virgin flight to Johannesburg on Tuesday night, but the Home office deferred her removal to give the family more time to prove claims that Cothills poor health entails she is unfit to travelling and care for herself.

Fresh medical proof submitted to the Home office on Wednesday proves removal could have fatal repercussions for the widow, who came to Britain two years ago.

Dr Benjamin Robinson, a psychiatrist at the Maudsley hospital in south London, diagnosed Cothill as suffered by severe clinical depression and severe nervousnes, developed since she realised she would be separated from her daughter.

Robinson said that Cothills separation from Wills, on whom she is both physically and emotionally reliant, would mean there was a considerable and heightened danger of death. A combination of her specific life history, resultant mental infirmity, current physical frailty, advanced age, and physical dependency on her daughter for provision of food, medication, and self-care, construct her remarkably sensitive to the effects of this separation, he said.

My prognosis should this process actually occur is as follows: Mrs Cothills mental state would rapidly decline, and this would be irreversible due to the causes of her depression; as a result her self-care would continue to decline, including loss of craving, loss of food intake and further weight loss, and she would be very likely to die more quickly as a result … she would herself thus be much more likely to die in the three months following removal.

The doctor also noted that Cothill has begun to think she would be better off dead, but has not attained plans to kill herself because she is a religious person and this would go against Gods will.

Jan Doerfel, Cothills barrister, said the evidence shows that the 92 -year-olds removal would be in breach of both her and her daughters right to private and family life under article 8 of the European convention on human rights.

It also raises the question whether Myrtles removal would risk resulting in inhuman and degrading treatment to her in the light of her physical debility, advanced age, partial blindness, emotional and physical dependency on her daughter, and grave mental health problems and would risk putting the UK government in breach of article 3 of the European convention on human rights, he said.

Her legal team added that they were pleased she had not been removed and were hoping for a swift and positive outcome by the Home office, which will now consider the lawsuit in light of the new proof.

We are left in no doubt that the public subsistence in all regions of the UK which we have witnessed, across all credoes and ethnicities( and across party lines ), shows that theres is an underlying and unifying notion in household values and a shared sentence and desire to look after ones loved ones, said the team, who are hoping their campaign will not only aim Cothill and her familys battle but will lead to a change of the adult dependent relative rule.

Cothill was born in 1924 under the British flag and her father fight in the British army in the first world war. She lost her husband 65 years ago, four months before her daughter was born, and came to Britain after she became frail. She had hoped to continue to live in South Africa but her church friends contacted her daughter to say they believed she required help with eating and bathing.

Cothills application for leave to stay in the UK was refused by a court in Wales last year and a bid to appeal against government decisions was rejected, with the magistrate ruling that she was not a person of credit and had obtained entry into the United Kingdom by misrepresentation and that she and her daughter arranged their affairs with the deliberate intent of inducing her removal difficult.

Home Office officials have suggested that Wills can travel to South Africa. However, she points out that she is a British passport holder and has no right to live in the country. Her husband also has Parkinsons disease and requires care.

Cothills case has caused a public outcry on Twitter, with the Green party leader, Natalie Bennett, Tv presenter Piers Morgan and many others condemning the Home office decision to remove her at her advanced age. A petition to save Myrtle has so far received more than 145,000 signatures and a money has raised virtually 10,000.

I dont know why I have to leave Mary. Shes my only child and I want to be with her on my last breath, Cothill has previously said. I am feeling terrible. Its too shocking whats happening to me. I feel like I can simply lie down and succumb. I cant believe how cruel they are to take me away from my daughter to South Africa.

The widower said she has nobody to look after her there the majority of members of her friends have passed away and she has no household there.

Where am I going to go? Where will I get the love and attention in my old age that I get from my daughter? No ones going to visit me , no ones running love me like she does. I have no one.

A spokesman for the Home Office said they will consider any evidence the family provides, which may change the outcome of Ms Cothills case.

Myrtle Cothill: 92 -year-old facing deportation ‘at risk of death in months’

Myrtle Cothill: 92 -year-old Facing Deportation 'at Risk Of Death In Months'

Myrtle Cothill: 92 -year-old Facing Deportation 'at Risk Of Death In Months'

Myrtle Cothill: 92 -year-old Facing Deportation 'at Risk Of Death In Months'

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