A woman who left her elderly housebound mother lying on the floor of their bungalow for seven days after she collapsed was given a suspended prison sentence

yesterday after admitting manslaughter.

Former supermarket cashier Benita Pearce, 33, wept as she walked from Truro Crown Court on the arm of her fiance.

She was given a 12-month jail sentence suspended for two years by Mr Justice Toulson who told her that medical evidence had shown she was probably in the early stages of a disease of the central nervous system - probably multiple sclerosis - at the time of her mother's death.

The judge said it was likely that had affected her reasoning.

The court was told Pearce went to work after her 62-year-old mother Isabella collapsed. She later vacuumed around her as she lay on the floor of their bungalow.

Pearce, of Foxhole, near St Austell, Cornwall, originally denied the manslaughter of her mother on October 22, 1997, but yesterday changed her plea to guilty following legal arguments.

Her mother a retired store detective, who suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, died in hospital two days after the family GP saw her under a soiled duvet in the hall of her home.

The judge told Pearce that it was a tragic and most unusual case, and she had pled guilty to causing her mother's death by gross neglect.

Her mother was made old beyond her years by arthritis and he had no doubt she was a difficult person.

But he told Pearce that she failed to take elementary steps to secure help for her when she was in obvious need.

''For a week, she lay helpless in your home in a state of progressive illness.

''Why you did not take effective steps is something of a mystery,'' said the judge.

He accepted, however, that Pearce did not appreciate the severity of her mother's condition was.

He added: ''It is sadly now apparent you are suffering from a disease of the central nervous system, very probably multiple sclerosis of a particularly severe kind.''

The judge said he took into account that Pearce faced ''a cruel prognosis'' and that the stress of the case had probably hastened the course of her disease.

Pearce told her GP on October 20 she had not summoned help for her mother, who was still on the floor, having fallen the previous Monday. The doctor told the court Pearce said she had difficulty in vacuuming around her mother.

The court had heard that Mrs Pearce died from blood poisoning, related to dehydration and a perforated bowel, in Treliske Hospital, Truro, on October 22, 1997.