London: A bank worker in Canary Wharf tried to kill her "manipulative and controlling" magistrate mother with a deadly poison bought over the internet, in a plot inspired by Breaking Bad, the hit television thriller, a London court heard on Monday.

Kuntal Patel, 38, wanted to murder her "evil" mother, Meena, because she had ruined her hopes of marrying the man she loved, Southwark Crown Court was told. She bought the deadly poison abrin on the "Dark Web" from a dealer in America whom she nicknamed "Heisenberg" after a character in Breaking Bad - the series about a chemistry teacher who turns drug manufacturer, and who uses ricin poison in a murder plot.

Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad.

However, the poison had no effect because Patel put it in a can of Diet Coke and the acid in the drink destroyed it. Patel, a graphic designer for Barclays Bank in Canary Wharf, hatched the plot after enduring years of violence and abuse at the hands of her mother, which culminated in her being forbidden from marrying Niraj Kakad, an American she met on Shaadi.com, an Asian dating site, prosecutor Jonathon Polnay said.

Mr Polnay added: "Inspired, in part, by the US television series Breaking Bad, she acquired a deadly toxin called abrin, a close relation to ricin. She acquired it over the Dark Web from a vendor in the USA. She paid using Bitcoins, a virtual, electronic currency, and used layer upon layer of encryption to try to cover her tracks."