A JURY yesterday heard a recording of a phone call from Susan Toop minutes before the bodies of her parents were discovered at the family’s Bournemouth bungalow.

In a shaky voice Toop tells friend, Maxine Hill, she had not been answering her calls because she had been “a bit confused”.

Police then arrived at the Uplands Road home in Charminster to find the bodies of Toop’s father, Arthur, 82, and mother, Joan, 74, in the house.

Toop, 54, denies the murder of her parents but has pleaded guilty to their manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Winchester Crown Court also heard from Dr David Markham, who treated Toop at Poole hospital on the night the elderly couple’s bodies were found in November 2008.

Toop had slashed her own throat and wrists in an apparent suicide attempt, but also had heavy bruising on her forehead, the court heard.

The trial had previously heard Mrs Toop tried to defend herself when her daughter used knives and an ornamental iron to attack her.

Forensic expert Pauline Lax told the jury traces of sleeping pills had been found in the blood of Toop and her father.

Toop claimed to have heavily drugged herself and both her parents prior to the attacks.

However, no trace of the drug was found in Mrs Toop’s blood, though the level in Mr Toop’s blood was likely to have sedated him, said Ms Lax.

Their daughter told police she had taken more than 60 sleeping pills before the attacks, leaving her with no memory of what happened next.

Ms Lax said the levels of the drug in Toop’s blood made it possible she may have taken such a high dose.

But she added that consumption on that scale would normally lead to “severe sedation, coma or even death”.

Toop told police that she killed her parents as she “couldn’t cope” and wanted to put her parents “out of their misery”.

The case continues.