A MENTALLY ill woman found dead on a sofa in squalid conditions had not had her clothes changed ‘for years’ a court heard.

Emma-Jane Kurtz, of Blackwater Way, Didcot, denies one count of wilful neglect on her mother Cecily, who died at their home address on July 2, 2014.

The 41-year old told jurors, as the trial at Oxford Crown Court continued yesterday, that her mother, who suffered from depression and was bipolar, had refused treatment and took to staying on her sitting room sofa day and night.

From the witness box she said: “It was up to her, I could not force her to change her clothes. It didn’t occur to me that not changing clothing would be harmful.

“If she had been wearing the same clothes for some years I didn’t think it would be harmful.”

She also told jurors that she had made efforts to get help for her mother, but that Cecily had refused and said: “I did what she wanted which was not forcing medical treatment on her.

“I tried to help, I was there for her, she didn’t have anyone else, that is what I tried to do.”

Asked by prosecutor Oliver Saxby QC if it had ever occurred to her to override her wishes and seek help she answered: “Not my mother, no.”

The court also heard yesterday from psychiatrist Dr Ruth Bagshaw who said that ahead of the trial she had examined Kurtz for autism and concluded that she had a mild form of the condition.

The trial continues.