Magistrates have adjourned the case of a Birmingham Mail columnist charged after she claimed to have been involved in the mercy killing of her aunt.

Maureen Messent, (67), of Birmingham, did not appear before magistrates in Newton Abbot to face a charge of knowingly making false reports.

The charge, brought under the Criminal Law Act 1967, alleged that she made the false reports by means of a newspaper article and a radio interview tending to show that an offence had been committed.

The case was adjourned to Torquay magistrates later this month.