'Sleeping' mother was dead

TWO CHILDREN kissed their dead mother goodbye and got ready for school yesterday thinking she had overslept.

Andrew Fleming, eight, and his seven-year-old sister Terry knocked at a neighbour's house in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, saying they could not wake their mother. Their father Stuart was already at work. The neighbour, Gillian Cockburn, who knew Mrs Fleming had flu, took the children to school before calling next door and discovering the body. The children's headteacher broke the news to them. Police were not treating the death as suspicious.

Andrew, Terry and their 18-month-old brother Alan were being cared for by the Cockburn family last night.