Weeping mum admits killing baby after ‘hearing voices’
A MOTHER wept in court yesterday after admitting drugging and murdering her baby son.
Hannah Turtle, 22, said she heard voices telling her she was a terrible mother and did not deserve her baby before suffocating sevenweek-old James Hughes,
She stopped him breathing three times over 10 days and finally killed him in June 2016 at her home in Shotton, north Wales, the court heard.
Turtle dramatically entered the Killer Hannah Turtle and James’s father Ian Hughes dock at Mold Crown Court and broke down as she admitted murdering James, causing him unnecessary suffering and administering a poison – her antidepressant medication put in his milk bottle. Turtle, who sat weeping with her head bowed, will be sentenced tomorrow. The court heard Turtle was living with her partner Ian Hughes and his mother Kathleen. While she had no mental illness, it was agreed that she suffered from a personality disorder.
Prosecutor David Elias QC said Turtle accepted causing James’s death but did not mean to do it.
On May 31 2016, she deliberately pinched his nose so he could not breathe and turned blue.
He received hospital treatment and was discharged back to his family, but on June 3 Turtle again suffocated him. James returned from hospital on June 6 but three days later she murdered him, Mr Elias said, putting her hand over his nose and mouth and stopping him breathing.
Experts said James would have been flailing his arms and the struggle went on for between five and 10 minutes, Mr Elias said.
James was pronounced dead in hospital on June 13.
Turtle initially denied being responsible but later told a social worker and a nurse that she had killed him, the court heard.
She said she had heard voices telling her that she did not deserve James.
Turtle said: “I wish I had never done it. I know I need help.”