Police allege son shot mum while she was knitting

THE son of a Queensland cold case murder victim made a spine-chilling confession to killing his mum, police will allege.

THE son of murder victim Dorothy Britton gave a graphic confession of the execution of his mum, even revealing how she called him “darling” and offered food before he ambushed her, detectives will allege.

The Sunday Mail can reveal that, in one of Queensland’s most notorious cold cases, Christopher Britton allegedly told a friend he walked into his mother’s Airlie Beach home in the Whitsundays, with a gun hidden behind his back, before he pulled it out and shot her.

Detectives allege Britton made the chilling warning just days before his mother’s murder in 1996 that “the best thing for her would be a bullet”.

Christopher Britton has been charged with the 1996 murder of his mother Dorothy Britton. Picture: AAP/Josh Woning

In a major breakthrough, detectives in June charged Britton, now 51, with her murder after renewed investigations involving the homicide squad.

“I shot her. I shot my mum,” Britton is alleged to have told a friend in the weeks after the murder.

“Mum was knitting or doing some sort of patch- work and mum said something like ‘G’day darling, there’s food on the stove.’

“I took the gun out and shot her in the head.”

Britton also allegedly detailed the gory scene, saying it was “something that I will never forget”.

Dorothy Britton was found dead in her bedroom.

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High-profile lawyer Adam Magill said he had spoken to his client who “vehemently denies” any involvement in the murder.

“He has been constantly requested about minor matters on issues that occurred 22 years ago that would escape anyone’s memory,” Mr Magill said.

“He has no knowledge of the offending.”

Mrs Britton, who was 48 at the time of her death, was found in the master bedroom of her home by a relative on the evening of March 7. She was killed with a weapon capable of firing an 00/SG shotgun round.

A shotgun once kept in a shed at the property but missing since Mrs Britton’s death was capable of firing that type of round, detectives allege.

The weapon was used for protection against crocodiles when fishing.

During an appeal this year police said they believed the person responsible for her murder had close association with Mrs Britton, was very familiar with her lifestyle patterns, address and “loyal” rottweiler dog Bella which “did not welcome strangers”.

Detectives will allege that Mrs Britton was last seen alive at her weekly art class on March 6 at 9.30am, and police believe she was killed that night as she did not turn up for a medical appointment the next morning.

Food scraps found inside the house were also similar with food found in her stomach during an examination after her death.

Investigators believe Mrs Britton became estranged from her son.

Mrs Britton lived with her husband Ian, who would be away for up to a week with his mining job before returning to the family home.

Away at Blackwater, west of Rockhampton, but concerned he couldn’t reach his wife by phone, he raised the alarm with a relative on March 7 who made the gruesome find.

Detectives will also allege Ian Britton had been having an affair and expressed concerns to Britton that Dorothy would ruin him financially if a divorce took place. Christopher Britton is also alleged to have said before the murder that the best thing for her would be to bludgeon her with a blunt instrument and let her die a slow and painful death, and the best thing for her would be a bullet.

Detectives allege another person told police that they had spoken to a man at Airlie Beach in the 1990s.

“If you have hassles with parents, do as I did, just blow them away like I did with my mother,” Britton is alleged to have said.

He moved from Queensland and was living alone in the coastal town of Port Neill in South Australia before his arrest this year.

A resident in the town said that Britton had lived there for quite some time.

“We don’t visit each other’s houses, but never had any problems at all,” the resident said. “He has a young son who is with him reasonably often and who loved his dad very much. And he seemed to be a very good dad,” the resident said.

“You can only speak as you find and he has always been very pleasant towards us. His son is a fine, polite, young man.”