In a victim impact statement read to the court, Cook’s sister Melissa said: “My mum’s biggest fear was for Danny to do something violent and spend his life in prison.”
Sophie described her mother as a “light, warm, loving person”, who would “always put other people before herself”.
“There’s a massive hole where she should be now. Nothing would be able to fill that,” she said.
“It feels like the colour’s gone from life. I just feel more like I’m existing and just going through the motions. I mean, especially because of the way that she died.
“Life’s very hard without her.”
Sophie said she had “mixed feelings” about the prison element of Cook’s sentence.
When asked if she forgave her brother, Sophie said: “I don’t know if I’d use the word forgive. Hopefully, maybe, in time, I would use that word.”
She added that what happened to her mum was not “an isolated incident”.
“I think unless there’s change to the way mental health services deal with people suffering from this and similar illnesses, more families are going to be ripped apart,” Sophie said.
“I think there needs to be more awareness as well. Like, if we’d known some of the red flags to look out for, I mean, we didn’t even know he had schizophrenia.
“It’s only now it’s too late that we’ve had so much help and there’s so much help, but only after something like this has happened.”
Cook is currently residing at Arnold Lodge psychiatric hospital in Leicester, and will continue to reside there, the court heard.