Son charged with murder after 85-year-old Jewish mother found in Ilford home

A man has been charged with murdering his 85-year-old mother after she was found unresponsive in a bath at her north-east London home.

On Saturday, Metropolitan Police officers charged Mark Herman, 54, with murdering the elderly woman at a bungalow in Rushden Gardens, Ilford.

A post-mortem examination confirmed the cause of her death as compression to the neck.

Detectives have named the victim as Loretta Herman, though formal identification has not yet taken place.

A spokesperson for the Met confirmed the pair were mother and son.

Officers and paramedics were called to the quiet residential street at 10.51am on Friday, where Ms Herman was found unconscious and not breathing in the bath.

Paramedics battled for an hour to save her life but she was pronounced dead at 11.48am.

The Met Police confirmed the officer leading the investigation understands that the family are Jewish.

Red roses have since been left on the doorstep to the home, where neighbours said Ms Herman had lived for around 35 years.

One local resident said she found the news “terrible” and “very upsetting”.

She said she saw seven police vehicles pull up on the street on Friday morning and a man being arrested.

The woman, who asked to be named only as Debra, said: “It’s a terrible death for an old lady, in her own home, it’s very upsetting.

“I knew her from years ago, but I presumed she had moved out because I hadn’t seen her in five years.”

Debra said Ms Herman used to live with her husband, who died some years ago.

Herman, of Rushden Gardens, is being held in custody and was due to appear at Redbridge Magistrates’ Court on Monday.