"It is true that those who are of the best faith are often the most cruelly deceived," she said.

In some cases, however, the practice is being "exploited as a smokescreen to cruelly kill foxes and hares", a spokesperson for Defra added.

Those tumors would often cause passersby to gawk cruelly, which made Pearson feel an unlikely kinship with the notable figures who stopped by the hospital.

But the ensuing organic and spontaneous outpouring of populist anger underscored how many Americans have been cruelly and unjustly denied medical treatment.

Opening the trial, prosecutor Nicholas Lumley KC said Charlie, who could "walk and talk", had suffered multiple injuries in the weeks and months before his death and he had been "cruelly neglected".