A SENIOR doctor has told how he begged a distressed mother not to leave hospital – only hours before she killed her two-year-old son.

Dr Clement Agbatar met Melanie Ruddell at the University Hospital of Hartlepool shortly before she strangled toddler Christy at her brother’s home in West Rainton, near Durham, in August 2010.

Dr Agbatar judged Mrs Ruddell, of Dene View, Castle Eden, near Peterlee, to be distressed, but not psychotic, an inquest at Sunderland Civic Centre heard yesterday.

When he called for help from an Easington-based crisis team at about 6.50pm, he was told the team would be free between 9.30pm and 10pm.

The crisis team’s practise was not to accept patients between 7pm and 9pm but wait for the night shift, the inquest heard. Dr Agbatar expressed concerns, but was offered no alternative.

“If that had been expressed, I would have gladly said: ‘Yes, please come now’.

“I wish I had. I would have jumped at that opportunity,”

he said.

Mrs Ruddell had been at the hospital in Hartlepool for about 90 minutes, but it was only after hearing of the further wait she decided to leave, Dr Agbatar told the inquest.

“I pleaded with her to stay.

She wasn’t having any of it.

“I said: ‘Melanie, look, you’ve come this far, you’ve been here for some time now with a problem that I haven’t solved, but there are other issues as well. You’re going to go away and start afresh – that’s wasting time. Why don’t you just wait here?’”

However, Dr Agbatar said he had no concerns that Mrs Ruddell would harm herself or anyone else because she had appeared “so calm”.

“She said ‘Doctor, I feel much, much happier now. I’m going to see my doctor and take it from there’. She gave me the impression of a very caring mother who loved this child dearly and would do anything to help that child.”

The next morning, Mrs Ruddell carried Christy’s lifeless body into Peterlee police station.

The 40-year-old, who admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, is watching the inquest through video link from a secure hospital on Teesside, where she is being detained under the Mental Health Act.

The hearing continues.