A woman has done what many would describe as the unthinkable to her own biological children aged 7 and 11 respectively, but tells court: it is because I love them.
Now, many are wondering whether truly that could be a best way for a mother to show love to children she carried for nine months and nurtured for years.
Even the manner in which she carried out the deed is in itself bizarre but it now left for the jury to adjudicate
The court heard that the Veronique John allegedly stabbed her son Ethan John more than 20 times and inflicted brain damage on her daughter Elizabeth John, before heading to a car wash in a dressing gown to stab her partner Nathan John in the stomach.
These were made bare during a trial-of-facts hearing at Nottingham Crown Court which also heard that Veronique John then returned home, dialled 999, and told the operator: ‘I am calling to report I just killed my two kids.’
Mrs John is a charity shop worker, reports say, and is alleged to have told police after they arrived at her home in Stoke-on-Trent on June 11 last year: ‘If you have a gun shoot me. I am not a monster – he was going to take them from me.’
Mother Does The Unthinkable To Her Children, But Tells Court: it is because I love them
Another allegation against the woman is that she was boiling with rage after being arrested for assaulting her husband while suspecting him of having an affair.
On why she really did the act, she reportedly told interviewing officers: ‘I didn’t want my husband to get them’.
‘It’s something I was thinking about for a long time – just kill myself and the kids. Unless you guys are offering me the death penalty I have nothing else to say.
‘I did it because I love my children – to protect the children.
‘If there’s any possible way I could be put to death, I would like that. I mean it 100%.’
During the Crown’s opening of the case against John, who was b
Born on the Caribbean island of St Vincent, the 50 years old ‘rage was boiling just under the surface’ a day after she was arrested for assaulting her husband with a piece of wood, prosecutor Peter Grieves-Smith said
Mother Does The Unthinkable To Her Children, But Tells Court: it is because I love them 2
Addressing jurors, Mr Grieves-Smith said John killed her children hours after making a ‘chilling’ internet search asking: ‘Can a foreigner be charged with murder in the UK?’
She is now charged with two counts of murder, attempted murder and an alternative count of wounding, but has been ruled unfit to plead.
Though she was not in the dock to hear the Crown’s opening speech, there were reports that she and her husband had experienced relationship challenges.
Matters got out of hand June 9 last year, when John who reportedly had been opposed to the man having an internet-enabled phone, became angry and struck her husband with a wooden slat while their children were getting ready for bed.
She was arrested after Mr John complained to police, and was issued with a community resolution notice.
On June 11, she reportedly trailed her husband to the car wash where he had stayed overnight and stabbed him in the stomach.
Mother Does The Unthinkable To Her Children, But Tells Court: it is because I love them3
Recounting what Mr John said in a subsequent 999 call, Mr Grieves-Smith said: ‘My wife just came to the car wash and stabbed me – she said that she had just killed the kids.’
‘Tension grew in the days before. That day she just erupted, killed her children and attacked Nathan.’
Ethan was pronounced dead after being found in a bedroom with a 17cm-long neck wound, while Elizabeth was discovered in the living room, having suffered head trauma and ‘three areas of sharp force’ injury, including to her stomach.