A terminally ill father killed his severely disabled son out of love, because he could not bear for him to be put in a care home.

Kevin O’Rourke had been diagnosed with cancer just weeks before he made the decision to end the life of his 47-year-old son Christopher, who had the mental age of three, an inquest heard.

Mr O’Rourke, aged 81, had not made his wife Avril aware of what he was going to do. He had feared she would not be able to look after their son as he was 6ft tall and weighed 14 stone.

But speaking at the inquest into his death, Mrs O’Rourke described her husband as a “very good father” and said that he and Christopher were like “two peas in a pod”.

The pair had lived at their Crab Lane home in Stafford for around 20 years, and Mrs O’Rourke, who lived nearby, visited daily.

At Cannock Coroner’s court yesterday, South Staffordshire coroner Andrew Haigh heard how Mr O’Rourke gave Christopher two sleeping tablets before he had suffocated him.

A few hours later he rang his wife to let her know what he had done and, after they had spent the night with the body, the next morning, February 18, he typed out a statement and took it to his solicitor.

He was later arrested by police and questioned. Mr O’Rourke died on March 11 at a hospice.

His statement was read out in court, in which he described how he did not want his son’s life to be a “misery” in a care home and he had “no regrets at all” for what he had done.

Speaking at the inquest, Detective Sergeant Clinton Jeffries said there was a substantial investigation into the case. Mrs O’Rourke said: “His father thought the world of him, they were like two peas in a pod. It was the most loving relationship between them. He was the best father in the world.”

Christopher suffered from a condition, a rare genetic disease called tuberous sclerosis, also known as Bourneville’s disease.

It is an incurable condition which causes non-malignant tumours to grow in the brain, kidneys, heart, eyes, lungs and skin.

He had died from asphyxia by a helium bag. Mr Haigh described the death as “tragic” and recorded a verdict of unlawful killing.