I’d rather he was dead than living with his father
‘Custody row mum’s vow before strangling son, 7’
A DEPRESSED mother murdered her young son after writing letters saying she would rather he ‘ be dead’ than lose him in a custody battle, a court heard.
Lesley Speed, 44, is accused of strangling Archie Spriggs with a scarf and then using a cushion to smother him.
The seven- year- old died on September 21 last year – the day Speed and her ex-partner Matthew Spriggs were due to attend a family court hearing regarding custody. He was found lying dead on his bunk bed by Speed’s partner, Darren Jones, at their home in Church Stretton, Shropshire.
Letters were found at Speed’s home in which she said she would ‘ rather that Archie be dead than see him leave with his father’, Birmingham Crown Court heard.
The jury was played a recording of a 999 call Mr Jones made immediately after the discovery, in which he said: ‘There’s blood everywhere. She’s cut herself. Her son, he’s dead. He’s freezing cold. He’s blue.’
Speed claimed she had found her son hanging himself so she ‘ cuddled him up and smothered him’ to ‘ end his suffering’. Giving evidence yesterday, Mr Jones said Speed also asked him to ‘finish her off’ as she lay on the bathroom floor covered in blood after slashing her neck, arms and wrists.
The self- employed ground worker said Speed told him Archie had gone into her bedroom that morning to ask: ‘Is it today you are going to court?’ She reportedly replied: ‘No, don’t worry about that’, but when she later went into his bedroom she ‘ found him hanging himself’, Mr Jones told the court.
He added: ‘She said she suffocated him. The last thing she said was, “I can’t put him through this”. [When I found her], I opened the bathroom door and popped my head in, I saw Lesley lying on the floor in the dark, lying in her pyjamas covered in blood.
‘ She was sobbing, very upset. She said, “finish me off ”, she didn’t want to be here any more. I didn’t know where Archie was, she said, “I have killed him”.’
Mr Jones went into the boy’s room and found him ‘stone cold like he had been in a fridge’ and called 999.
First responders said she failed to ask about Archie as she was treated for her wounds. The mother was taken to hospital for treatment, but was later charged with murder.
Forensic tests on the scarf revealed ‘ off- white’ stains which were consistent with it being ‘pulled tightly as a ligature to strangle him’, the court heard. And fluids found on the cushion implied that ‘it was held over his face to asphyxiate him’.
Discussing his partner’s state of mind, Mr Jones said: ‘[The custody hearing] was getting her down, Lesley was anxious. She was stressed and worried and she hadn’t done her statement yet.’
Three text messages sent by Speed to Mr Jones in the weeks before Archie’s death were read to the court which indicated she was struggling with suicidal thoughts. One message said: ‘I don’t want to be in this f***** up world.’ Another text mentioned her son: ‘I really don’t want to be here. I wish we could just go to the coast and never come back or die so I don’t have to feel like this again. I feel like I am losing it and I have an overwhelming feeling I am going to lose Archie.’
Sally Howes QC, prosecuting, said: ‘It is the Crown’s case that he was murdered by his mother. September 21 was the day of the family court hearing that she so dreaded.
‘She had not prepared herself for that hearing and feared that the proceedings would result in Archie being taken away from her.’
Speed had been diagnosed with depression in 1998 and 2014, the court heard.
Miss Howes told the jury: ‘If you are sure that she did murder Archie, you are asked to consider the experts’ opinions which are that at the time of the killing she was suffering from a mental abnormality.’
Jurors were told one assessment of Speed’s mental state revealed her level of depression was ‘ moderate’, but another said she was suffering from a ‘severe episode of depression with psychotic symptoms’. Speed denies murder. The trial continues.
‘I can’t put him through this’