Murder accused: 'I want to die!'

Terry Rodgers (56) has eaten nothing since Christmas Eve and very little even before then, his counsel, Stephen Ferguson, told the court.

"In essence, he wishes to die as quietly as possible and without interference," said Mr Ferguson.

"He is currently preoccupied by burial arrangements and settling his affairs."

Rodgers, who did not appear at the hearing, is accused of shooting his hairdresser daughter, Chanel (23), at her home in Huthwaite on Thursday July 29.

Only seven weeks earlier, he had given Chanel away when she was married at Mansfield Register Office.

Chanel was found with gunshot wounds to her head by her husband, Lee, in the dining room of the couple's terraced home on New Street.

Her father was charged with the murder in August after he was found hiding in a bunker in Annesley Woods, following Nottinghamshire police's largest-ever manhunt, Operation Rendition.

Rodgers has close links with Hucknall where he lived and ran a business for a number of years.

He is said to have told his barrister last Friday that he would not attend court, while a doctor had advised prison chiefs not to physically force him because of his condition.

Mr Ferguson told the court: "The prison, and indeed all of us, now have very real concerns for his health and indeed his life.

"The prison doctor has invited him to sign an advance directive to indicate that, as his condition worsens, he does not want medical intervention of any kind."

Rodgers would not be pressed about how he intended to plead to the charge, said Mr Ferguson. He added that he was taking a psychiatrist to visit Rodgers on Monday afternoon.

If Rodgers was deemed to have the mental capacity to decline medical assistance, he would be left to die.

"Long gone are the days when that would have been aiding suicide by a doctor," Mr Ferguson added.

Adjourning the case until Friday February 4, Judge Christopher Pitchers said: "I anticipate that various doctors will be considering their professional judgments very carefully in the next few days."

n YESTERDAY a member of the prisons' independent monitoring board said he had visited Rodgers and found him "to be in good spirits".

"He was sitting on the end of his bed, watching daytime TV, drinking a cup of tea and about to roll a cigarette," said a spokesman.

"I am confident he is being looked after by the prison authorities just as well as a patient would be in hospital."