A MOTHER has told in harrowing detail how she took the lives of her two severely-disabled sons because she could no longer cope.

Melody Turnbull, 53, said: "I have brought them here and - God forgive me! - I have taken them away. I hope they forgive me. I loved them so much. This is unreal - it's a living nightmare."

In a police interview, read out at an inquest into the tragedy, Turnbull said she gave her sons, Richard, 20, and Robert, 23, an overdose of temazepam, codeine and paracetamol. She then put them to bed and suffocated them.

The inquest in Newport, Isle of Wight, was told yesterday that Turnbull and her husband Ron, 57, had cared for their sons all their lives - without help, even though both their sons had severe cerebral palsy.

Turnbull has admitted manslaughter with diminished responsibility at Winchester Crown Court last year, and was sentenced to three years' probation.

The inquest was told she had been on her own in the house, which she shared with her sons and her husband in Bembridge, in October 1999.

Mr Turnbull had left the Island to seek accommodation for the family.

Turnbull said she could not cope any more with looking after the boys, but she was "paranoid" that social services would put them in a home.

In the interview, which caused Mr Turnbull, reporters and police officers to weep openly, Turnbull - who did not attend the inquest - explained that she tipped the drugs into her sons' food.

"I gave Richard a drink to wash it down and he was pulling faces a bit. I suppose it was horrible and I cut a little bit of Milky Bar to put in his mouth. I could hear Richard singing away, as he does when he gets temazepam. And then all of a sudden, he stopped very quickly and he was out like a light, and I carried him off to his bed.

"I could not do it any more and I laid him on his bed. Then I went down and saw Robbie, and he was very, very sleepy and I laid him in his bed.

"Then I went in to Richard and looked at him and I said, 'this is awful'.

"I said 'it's got to end, Richard, I do love you so, please forgive me' and I put a pillow over his face. I did not know how long for, but I just kept talking to him and telling him how much I loved him.

"They were the most precious little boys in the world. And I was crying, and then I stopped crying and I went into Robbie almost as though another force had taken me over. He was asleep and I said, 'oh darling' and I told him all the things I had told Richard.

"I do not remember having the pillow, but I must have brought it in and I fell asleep. I did not know how long, minutes, seconds, but I was on my knees leaning over."

Turnbull then called the police. Earlier she had told how the pressure on her had mounted in the months before she killed her sons.

In the interview, she stated that she felt the care agencies were not doing enough to help her look after Richard and Robert.

"They were treated like muck," she said. "They were stared at and sneered at. The truth is, I could not take any more and I knew they could not cope without me."

Recording a verdict of unlawful killing on both men, Isle of Wight Coroner John Matthews said the case was harrowing and extremely tragic.

He said: "It would be a crushing burden to have one of these children with disabilities but Mr and Mrs Turnbull had two children and for the entirety of their lives they showed classic and extreme self-denying devotion for them. There is no doubt they loved their children.

"The authorities were taken by surprise by the extent of the disabilities of the young men. This was due, in the main, because the parents chose not to involve the authorities.

"It does not seem to me that the authorities were uncaring in their attitude.''

Mr Matthews said he could not condone the actions of Mrs Turnbull.

But he added: "The sympathies of everyone with normal feelings must extend to the parents.''